Andhra’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed an FIR against former Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas in connection with a land scam in Amravati. The agency filed an FIR after the cabinet sub-committee and the SIT submitted their reports which said Srinivas had prior knowledge of the exact location of the capital region and had allegedly reaped rich benefits by buying prime land involving his kith and kin and close associates.
Srinivas was appointed as the additional advocate general in June 2014 and was elevated to advocate general in May 2016 by the previous TDP government.
He had acquired land between June 2014 and December 2014 for his close relatives and associates and purchased back some of the land for himself and his wife Dammalapti Nagarani in 2015-16 and the land turned out to be prime as it was either in the core capital area or abutting the capital region. In December 2014 when the ‘Capital Area Region Bill’ came out and the names of the villages were made public, Srinivas held a constitutional post and was privy to the information of the exact location of the capital and he immensely benefited out of the land deals by abusing his official position.
Other names which were included in the FIR are Dammalapati Nagarani (wife), Nannapaneni Lakshmi Naryana (father-in-law), Nannapaneni Sita Rama Raju (brother-in- law), Nannapaneni Krishna Murthy, Madala Vishnuvrdhan Rao, Mukkapati Pattabhi Rama Rao, Yarlagadda, Ritish, Yarlagadda Lakshmi.
The accused have purchased large extent of land, most of which was acquired in the villages which were going to be included in the Amaravati capital region and in the villages which were going to fall just outside the land pooling scheme area as well as in the villages adjacent to the arterial roads and the iconic bridge proposed to be built across the Krishna river.
The FIR stated that Srinivas entered into a criminal conspiracy with 12 other buyers who are also the beneficiaries. All of them have allegedly committed the offence punishable under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.