The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday fined an automobile showroom belonging to former state Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao's son, Kodela Sivaramakrishna, in Guntur.
Officials of the Transport Department said that Gowtham Automotives was made to pay Rs 1 crore as a penalty for selling bikes without paying taxes.
According to media reports, Deputy Commissioner of the Transport Department, E Meera Prasad, said that Rs 41 lakh was also collected as life tax and temporary registration fee of 576 bikes, which were allegedly sold without payment of these taxes.
The Transport Department also said that similar fines were imposed on other automobile showrooms in Guntur district for violating norms.
Incidentally, this is the same showroom where officials had earlier conducted searches and found furniture belonging to the state Legislative Assembly.
Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, a senior leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), had killed himself at his house in Hyderabad on September 16.
This as after Sivaramakrishna and his father were booked on August 25 for allegedly diverting Assembly furniture to unauthorised places, which included the private showroom.
Police had booked Siva Prasada Rao and his son under Sections 409 (cheating) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code for diverting the furniture.
The former Speaker had admitted that while shifting the Assembly furniture and equipment to Amaravati from Hyderabad in 2016, some of it was taken to his office-residence in Sattenapalli, as the furniture could have got damaged in the temporary Assembly building.
He had also claimed that he wrote to the Legislature Secretary, asking him to take back the furniture, and also offered to pay for the furniture.