BRS working president KT Rama Rao
Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao on Friday, September 18, appeared before the Nampally Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in connection with the Formula E case.
IAS officer Arvind Kumar, former Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) chief engineer BLN Reddy and former sports consultant Govenda Kiran Malleswara Rao also appeared before the court.
However, since accused officials of the Formula E, listed as accused numbers five and six, failed to appear, the matter was adjourned to October 30, BRS Party Legal Cell member Lalitha Reddy told ANI.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, KTR said that other chief ministers are going across the world to promote racing events, but when BRS tried to do it in Hyderabad, cases were filed against them.
Referring to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay flagging off the Michelin Le Mans Cup in the United Kingdom, he said, “As you might have seen, the Chief Minister of a neighbouring state went all the way to London for a motor racing event…When we tried to do the same thing, they filed cases against us and are troubling us simply because we tried to bring investments and goodwill to Hyderabad and Telangana. We have immense faith in the judiciary, and whenever the court summons me, I will appear again,” he said.
The case pertains to the alleged corruption of nearly Rs 55 crore during the former BRS government’s Formula E deal.
Soon after coming to power, the Congress government claimed that KTR, during his tenure as the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Minister, allowed the transfer of Rs 55 crore from HMDA to the Formula E Operations, without the approval of the Cabinet.
Arvind Kumar served as the special chief secretary of the MAUD department at the time.
The ACB had filed a chargesheet on March 23 this year, naming KTR as accused number one, Arvind Kumar as accused number two and BLN Reddy as accused number three.
Sports consultant Govenda Kiran Malleswara Rao was named as accused number four, and Formula E Operations as accused number five.
On February 11, 2023, the first Formula E race was held at the banks of Hussain Sagar. Following the success of this event, MAUD had entered into an agreement with Formula E Operations (FEO) for another race scheduled for February 10, 2024.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) paid Rs 55 crore to FEO as part of the agreement, which was established during the BRS tenure.
However, FEO later announced its withdrawal from hosting the race in January 2024, citing non-compliance with the terms of the agreement. At the time the agreement was signed, BRS was in power. However, following the 2024 elections, the Congress government came to power before FEO decided to cancel the event.
This post was last modified on September 18, 2026 2:14 pm