The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday, January 7, conducted raids at the Greenko Group’s offices in Hyderabad and districts in Andhra Pradesh in connection with the alleged financial irregularities in the Formula E case. The raid comes at a time when Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao’s (KTR) squash petition against the ACB was dismissed by the Telangana High Court.
According to official sources, raids were conducted at the company offices in Hyderabad’s Madhapur, and Vijayawada and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
The raids against Greenko, a renewable energy group, is part of the Formula E investigation. Ace Nxt Gen, a subsidiary of Greenko, signed a four-year agreement with the Telangana government, then led by the BRS, and Formula E Operations, the promoters of the Formula E electric car race in October 2022.
Under the agreement, Hyderabad would be the first Indian city to host the prestigious race. The first edition of the race was held in February 2023. But soon after, Ace Nxt Gen withdrew from the agreement. The next edition of the event was subsequently cancelled. After coming to power in December 2023, the Telangana Congress accused the BRS of paying Rs 55 crore to Formula E to shield Ace Nxt Gen.
The ACB is currently investigating the sponsorship agreement and the event funding and also probing the company’s political contributions. It is worth noting that six months before the agreement was signed for the Formula E race, the Greenko group bought electoral bonds worth Rs 19 crore during the twentieth and twenty-first phases of their sale. Of this, the group gave Rs 11 crore to BRS. The other companies linked to Greenko gave Rs 23 crore to BRS during the same period.
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