Hyderabad: TS Telugu Desam leaders on Thursday stepped up their attack on the state government in connection with the Miyapur land scam, asking Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao why the name of Goldstone Prasad, the alleged kingpin of the scam, was not included in the FIR lodged by the police.

The TS TD charge comes at a time the party, which is in power in AP, is facing embarrassment over the recently unearthed land scam in and around Visakhapatnam city, in which its leaders are accused of being involved.

TS TD president L. Ramana, working president A. Revanth Reddy and other leaders addressed a media conference in Hyderabad and accused the Chief Minister, Governor and the Chief Secretary who holds the additional responsibilities of the Chief Commissioner Land Administration, of shielding the main culprit Prasad.

They said that this was the reason the government was not taking any follow-up action like taking steps to protect the lands or and following up the investigation in the case, the TD leaders charged.

They said despite several requests, Chief Secretary S.P. Singh did not meet them to receive their representation and did not bother to initiate any action on the representations filed with his office so far.

“When we tried meeting Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to represent the matter and request him to take action into the scam by bringing the main culprit Prasad booked, he refused to give us an appointment. We suspect the Chief Minister may have exerted pressure on the Governor not to entertain us, but as per Section 8 of AP Reorganisation Act, it’s the Governor’s duty to protect government lands in the capital city,” Mr Revanth Reddy said.

He said TD delegation would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the CBI director with a request to entrust the investigation to CBI to unearth the real persons involved in the Rs 15,000 crore land scam in Miyapur.

The TD leaders said that the arrested accused — P.S. Pardhasarathy, P.V.S. Sarma and Srinivasa Rao – have already filed a petition in the Supreme Court but it is strange that state government did not bother to engage senior lawyer or advocate-general to argue the case.

“Instead, it appointed a small-time lawyer to defend the government which only indicates that the government is not serious about pursuing the investigation,” Mr Revanth Reddy said.