ACB Files Case: Insider Trading in Amaravati

Following the reports of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and a Cabinet sub committee alleging that a ‘scam’ took place in Amravati lands during the announcement of capital, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a case. The ACB’s case indicated that there could be a possible “Insider Trading” took place in 2014. The ACB is said to have gathered some evidence that large amounts of lands were bought before the capital announcement after state division.

The allegations have it that some senior TDP leaders had “bought” huge lands in the names of their “benamis”. It’s alleged that some people who are ration-card holders and don’t even have PAN number were among the land buyers in the capital region in Amaravati during the period. While some of them had confessed to buying lands in the investigation and some others were “innocent” and “unaware” that lands were bought in Amaravati on their names.

Ordering a detailed probe into the whole issue, the state government directed the ACB officials to book a case and conduct a thorough investigation. Already, some senior officials and bureaucrats besides some TDP leaders are under the scanner of the ACB.

While TDP leaders and some farmers in Amaravati are accusing that these are acts of “Political Vendetta” and “targeting Opposition leaders” and “diverting from capital issue”, YSRCP leaders and ministers on contrary maintain that a “huge scam” took place in Amaravati in Chandrababu Naidu’s tenure as CM in the previous government. YCP leaders stated that “facts” would come out.

On the other hand, AP state government has fastened the process of shifting the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam. In this backdrop, this ACB case has gained a great significance and indicated this could lead to a political war between ruling and opposition parties.