Former minister with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government, P Narayana was issued a notice on Wednesday by the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh, asking him to appear before it on March 22 in connection with the "Amaravati land scam" case.
Stepping up the investigation a day after it summoned former Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, named the first accused in the case, CID officials served a notice on Narayana at his Hyderabad residence, asking him to appear before the investigating officials, police said.
The notice was issued under Section 41(A) of CrPC (Notice of appearance before police officer), they said. The CID also issued a notice to ruling YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, the complainant in the case, asking him to appear on Thursday for the examination of facts and to submit proof to back his complaint.
The notice under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (police officer's power to require the attendance of witnesses) asked the MLA to appear before the investigating officer in Vijayawada.
It was on Ramakrishna Reddy’s complaint, that the CID registered a case naming Chandrababu Naidu and Narayana, then Minister for Municipal Administration, as the first and second accused respectively.
Three teams visited the residences of the former Minister at Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Nellore to serve the notices. As the TDP leader was not at home, the notice was given to his wife Ramadevi. Officials with the CID also carried out searches at the residence of Narayana at Nellore.
On Tuesday, a similar notice was served to the former Chief Minister for an appearance on March 23.
The FIR was filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy, and also the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The CID registered the FIR on March 12, based on the complaint filed by Alla Ramakrishna Reddy on February 24, more than a month after the High Court struck down a case pertaining to "insider trading" in the Amaravati land scam.
The issue pertains to pooling of land for the development of the state's new capital city Amaravati back in 2015.
According to the FIR, the complainant received representations from some of the farmers in his constituency that some influential persons of the then government had 'cheated' them by taking away their lands "illegally, fraudulently by keeping innocent peasants under confusion and fear of insecurity about their lands".
"This set of middlemen who were the part of the conspiracy by making false representations that the government was going to take away their assigned lands without giving any compensation (sic)," it said.
The complainant verified the GOs issued by the government and found several 'irregularities' were committed by the respondents and caused irreparable loss to the SC and ST community and weaker sections of society, and got wrongful gains and requested necessary legal actions, the FIR added.
Reacting to the CID notice, TDP state president K Atchannaidu has said it was nothing but 'vendetta.'
(with PTI Inputs)