Marthi Subrahmanyam
Vijayawada
In what could be a jolt to the credibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership in Andhra Pradesh, a Rs 100 crore scam is learnt to have been committed by a few senior leaders by luring gullible unemployed with nominated posts in Central government organisations. A former BJP leader reportedly admitted to the scam before the three-member committee constituted by the State leadership of the party.
Indupudi Sudhakar, who earlier worked as a district secretary, admitted to the Rs 100 crore scam before the committee.
‘The Pioneer’ is in ‘possession’ of the three-member BJP committee report.
According to BJP sources, the three-member committee has conducted an inquiry into the scam. A Union minister and some other BJP leaders recommended the names of their candidates to be nominated for the posts in the Smart Yojana Welfare Society headed by I Sudhakar. However, the unemployed youths who approached Sudhakar with the recommendation letters of BJP leaders found themselves cheated.
The BJP’s three-member committee comprising P Ravi Raju, D Busi Raju, and Pattabhi Prasad submitted its report on November 30, 2022, to the State BJP committee. But, the State committee did not table the report before the Core Committee meeting so far.
“The BJP leaders fear that if a discussion is held in the Core Committee, the names of senior BJP leaders will come out which will dent the reputation of the party in AP,” a senior BJP leader admitted. According to BJP sources, the accused Sudhakar confessed that before the three-member committee that a large number of jobs were offered to the candidates recommended by the BJP leaders by taking money from them.
“An amount of Rs 100 crore was involved in the job scam. The accused Indupudi Sudhakar was arrested by the police and later freed on bail.”
BJP sources said that a prominent BJP leader in North AP and his benami played a key role in the job scam. The accused had purchased 80 acres of land in nine survey numbers at Korukollu village in Rolugunta mandal near Narsipatnam with the money earned through the scam. The victims later informed the matter to the three-member committee.
In fact, there is no connection between the Smart Yojana Welfare Society and the Central government. The accused Sudhakar deceived the victims in the name of a Central government scheme. Significantly, the accused used some BJP leaders as their agents in the job scam.
A BJP leader said that the accused admitted that they have managed a section of the media to ensure that the job scam is not exposed. The accused Sudhakar has taken Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh from each unemployed person for providing a job. Some BJP leaders have taken the money and after keeping their share, they had given the rest of the money to the accused, it is learnt.
Moreover, some of the victims who got jobs in the scam were paid Rs 19,000 and Rs 25,000 as salary for one month only. Later, they were not paid salaries by the company which offered the jobs.
After the arrest of the main accused Sudhakar, the unemployed youths understood that they were deceived. The accused told the three-member committee that jobs were given to the candidates who were recommended by the YSRCP, Jana Sena leaders, and some police officials also. However, the entire job scam was exposed by the media later.
According to sources, an RSS leader who is in touch with BJP leaders in AP, used to telephone the accused Sudhakar frequently asking him to provide jobs to his candidates.
BJP leader Shiva Narayana Raju has taken the job scam to the notice of senior leaders in the BJP and the RSS but they have not responded.
