The CBI has accused industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad of Matrix  fame and now in jail of  abetting in Y S Jagan's illegal assets case  of selling lands that were allotted to him by the government for implementation of Vanpic project for a huge profit.

CBI  informed a court here on Monday that it had seized sale agreements showing transactions in land at Rs.12.5 lakh an acre while the cost price ranged from Rs.75,000 to 1.52 lakh an acre. Prasad thus put the lands to his own use, the CBI said opposing  his bail pettition.

The counsel for CBI Balla Ravindranath argued that the allotment of lands itself was fraudulent as it was done in favour of Vanpic projects private limited which was controlled by Prasad while the proposal approved by the Cabinet envisaged that Vanpic ports private limited (VPPL) be handed over the lands. The VPPL was a special purpose vehicle for the implementation of the project with Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) of UAE and Prasad’s Matrix Enport Holdings Limited as joint venture partners.

Prasad thus cornered 13,000 acres of land from farmers without legal sanctity. He paid only Rs. 150 crore for land acquisition but inflated the figure to Rs. 450 crore in the books of accounts. The difference of Rs. 300 crore was shown as ‘goodwill’, of which he diverted Rs. 140 crore as investment into the companies owned by Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

CBI said that Prasad was supposed to develop the project and do business as the Indian partner of RAKIA but he diluted the stake of RAKIA from 51 to 26 p.c. and that of his own from 49 to 9 p.c. The 65 per cent equity that was left on dilution was handed over to Navayuga Engineering Company which was inducted as a third partner without informing the government.