ACB justifies arrest of TDLP leader

The ACB on Saturday justified the arrest of TDLP deputy leader K. Atchannaidu as they had sufficient evidences of his involvement in the ESI scam.

Joint Director of ACB Ravi Kumar, addressing the media here, said that two FIRs were registered in the ESI scam. During investigations, they had found that 19 persons were involved in the scam. Further probe is in progress, he said.

Ravi Kumar pointed out that if they have evidences against corruption then there is no need for issuing any notice to the accused. It was for this reason that Atchannaidu was arrested. He said that ESI directors Vijay Kumar and Ramesh Kumar, ESI JD Janardhan, employees Chakravarthy, Venkat Rao and Ramesh Babu were the others who have been arrested.

He said that during the investigation, officials found that there was `150 crore corruption in 2018-19 and as many as 19 persons were found involved in it. He said ACB will be questioning more people.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had directed that Atchannaidu had to be provided good treatment, which is what doctors attending on him were doing.

Ravi Kumar said that house motion petitions were filed on behalf of Atchannaidu and Ramesh Kumar and said that they did not find involvement of any other political leader in the scam. He said that ACB had found that Atchannaidu had directed officials to issue purchase orders on his letterhead.

He said that the two separate FIRs pertain to corruption in medicine purchases and telemedicine equipment.