New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea filed by former Telangana minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy seeking a CBI probe into the alleged fraud over estimates of electromechanical equipment meant for Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project.

A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma refused to intervene in the Telangana High Court decision dismissing Reddy’s plea.

The project aims to supply clean, potable water to the upland areas of Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Nagarkurnool, Vikarabad and Narayanpet Districts.

The scheme envisages lifting of 90 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water in 60 days during the flood season from the fore shore of the Srisailam project on Krishna River at Yellur, Kollapur in Mahabubnagar through five separate stages.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has partnered with Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) for the irrigation project.

“We find that the high court was justified in declining to refer the case to CBI,” the bench held.

The top court observed that four other cases relating to the same project before the high court were either dismissed or disposed of.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Reddy, submitted that the plea sought a direction to the CBI to investigate the alleged fraud.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Megha Engineering, raised objections about the maintainability of the appeal.

The top court had previously directed the Telangana government to produce the original file relating to the preparation of estimates and ordered Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited to produce the original file relating to the joint venture agreement with Megha Engineering.

“BHEL will file an affidavit about the details of the equipment made by it and supplied and the payments received for the projects in question,” the top court order dated December 18, 2024 said.

Reddy filed a PIL in the high court against the contract awarded to a joint venture between BHEL and MEIL alleging that it caused a loss of over Rs 2,000 crore to the public exchequer.

He claimed that the state had “fraudulently revised the value of the equipment to be used in the project from Rs 5,960 crore to Rs 8,386 crore”. PTI PKS PKS AMK AMK