A probe into the high-profile wedding of Telangana Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar’s daughter, Anjali Kumar, has revealed that a major part of the expenses were billed to a company called BigWave Infra Private Limited, a recently formed entity, which appears to be a shell company with connections to employees of the Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), the News Minute reported.
The News Minute‘s investigation revealed that MEIL executives used their company email IDs to coordinate the planning for the wedding celebrations at opulent venues such as the Taj Falaknuma Palace.
MEIL has received several government construction contracts, the most notable of which is work on Telangana’s ambitious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. The project’s current cost is estimated to be Rs 1.15 lakh crore. This prestigious irrigation project’s nodal officer is Rajat Kumar, the report states.
According to the report, the company’s address is located in the Bahadurpura area of Hyderabad’s old city. The report talks of documents which show executives of MEIL being intimately involved in the planning of the wedding that was spread over five days and multiple luxury venues between December 17 and 21, 2021.
The report states that MEIL executives coordinated the wedding contracts, bookings, and payments with the Taj Group, whose hotels Taj Krishna, Taj Deccan, and Taj Falaknuma were used for the various wedding events and for the wedding guests to stay.
The company’s executives also used their company email IDs to coordinate the events, as well as a dummy email ID created specifically to coordinate the Special Chief Secretary’s daughter’s wedding, it says, further claiming that the company executive signed off on emails from the fake ID using his real name.
While the dummy email ID was initially used, many of the later communications were between MEIL executives using their company emails and hotel staff, the News Minute reported.
A Lavish Affair Worth Lakhs
According to the investigation, on July 31, 2021, a gmail account called ‘bookingshyderabad’ was used to email the hotel in advance to make bookings for the banquet halls and rooms at the hotel, thereby blocking the wedding dates. Murali signed off on the email. Murali K and another MEIL executive, Prameelan T, then coordinated the event’s bookings, invoices, and payments, the report said.
Murali from MEIL reserved the Al Fresco Lawn for lunch, the Luxury Suite for high tea, and the Chambers Lawn for dinner on December 17. Breakfast and dinner were reserved for the Garden room on December 18, while lunch was reserved for the Al Fresco Lawn. Similarly, other venues in Taj Krishna were reserved for the meals on December 19, 20, and 21.
These particulars were finalised on December 13th.
MEIL’s initial contract with the hotels was worth approximately Rs 50 lakh. The report claims that the invoices were requested to be raised in the names of two companies: Interactive Data Systems and BigWave Infra Private Limited, both of which were established in June 2021. Interactive Data Systems’ directors serve on the boards of several MEIL companies.
When it came time to make payments, however, the company linked to MEIL backed out, leaving BigWave with an outstanding amount of Rs 23 lakh.
According to two sources who spoke with the News Minute, Rajat Kumar conducted the preliminary talks for the bookings. Later, the bureaucrat’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Prabhakar Rao, and two MEIL executives coordinated all of the arrangements. the sources said.
On December 20, Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar hosted a lavish dinner for his daughter, son-in-law, and their guests at the Taj Falaknuma, a luxury palace hotel, for 70 guests, with the hotel charging Rs 16,520 per guest.
Congress, BSP Demand Probe
In response to the report, Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy questioned MEIL’s relationship with the Chief Secretary, asking if it was a case of ‘quid pro quo.’
BSP state co-ordinator RS Praveen Kumar stated that if the KCR government does not take action against Rajat Kumar, the government’s integrity will be called into question.
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