MEIL sacks Retd IAS PV Ramesh for his controversial comments on arrest of Chandrababu Naidu

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad-based Infrastructure giant Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) has sacked Retd IAS officer PV Ramesh who was acting as an adviser in the company for his comments on the CID for the arrest of former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, according to highly placed sources.

PV Ramesh is a retired IAS officer and Principal Secretary of the Finance Department of Andhra Pradesh during Chandrababu Naidu's regime. He created a flutter on Monday by blaming the AP CID for arresting Nara Chandrababu Naidu.

The MEIL is said to have taken a serious note of PV Ramesh’s comments on a subject that the company was in no way concerned with and the advisor was asked not to report for duty from Tuesday.

Why the sudden turn?

Grappling with his earlier deposition before the investigating officers of the AP Skill Development Corporation scandal under sections 161 of the Cr.P.C and before the Judicial Magistrate under 164 of the Cr. P.C, the former IAS officer in an statement following the remand of the former Chief Minister alleged that the CID had resorted to the arrest of the former CM without solid evidence.

He further argued that the administrative infrastructure in the State would crumble if a Chief Minister was blamed for the disbursement of funds Nara Chandrababu Naidu was incarcerated. He pointed out that the CID without holding the officials concerned responsible for the kickbacks paid to shell companies in the skill development case, held Chandrababu Naidu responsible. However, Ramesh made no mention of his role in the scam as the Principal Secretary of Finance in the TDP Government.

Recently Ramesh had given an interview in a TDP-friendly news channel in which he had made snide remarks against AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and also obliquely heaped encomiums on Chandrababu Naidu.

Political analysts, however, consider PV Ramesh as a staunch follower of the TDP who looked after the financial issues of former Union Minister of State ‘Sujana’ Chowdary. It was also reported that he was trying for a TDP ticket for the Amalapuram Assembly seat for his brother.

The former IAS officer whose deposition under the pertinent sections of the Cr. P.C paved the way for the action on the former Chief Minister, somehow developed cold feet afterwards. To minimise the damage he made through his depositions before the judge, changed tack and began taking up cudgels on behalf of Chandrababu Naidu in the public domain.

The former officer’s deposition under sections 161 and 164 Cr. P.C, confirmed the role of Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the scam and the CID had both audio and video evidence of the deposition of PV Ramesh even in front of a judge.

Consequent to the advisory, PV Ramesh voluntarily offered to quit the adviser role in MEIL.