Araku ex-MP Kothapalli Geetha arrested, sentenced to 5 yrs in jail in PNB case

HYDERABAD: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Kothapalli Geetha, former MP from Araku in Andhra Pradesh and a few others here. The arrests were made in connection with a case of loan default involving the Punjab National Bank. In a subsequent development, the CBI special court in Nampally sentenced her to five-year imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs one lakh in the case. According to reports, the court also slapped her husband Rama Koteswara Rao with the same sentence and fine. The court delivered its verdict on Wednesday over the CBI chargesheet, filed with it in 2015.

PNB officials B K Jayaprakasan and KK Aravindakshan were also sentenced to five years imprisonment for their alleged complicity in the loan default case. The CBI court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakhs on Visweswara Infrastructures Private Limited, promoted by Geetha and her husband.

The CBI officials later shifted all the arrested persons including Geetha to Osmania Hospital for the mandatory medical examination. They were being shifted to Cherlapally jail even as the former MP from Araku moved the Telangana High Court for bail. Geetha and her husband are charged with defaulting Punjab National Bank of Rs 42.79 crores which they obtained as a loan. The couple secured the loan in the name of Visweswara Infrastructures Private Limited.

Geetha was elected to the Lok Sabha from Araku in 2014 on a YSRCP ticket. Later, she had switched her loyalties to the then ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP). In 2018, she floated her own party in the name of Jana Jagruthi Party. Later, in June 2019, she met Amit Shah in Delhi and formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Before the PNB case was registered by the CBI, Geetha also hogged headlines after a petition was filed seeking her disqualification for contesting and winning from a constituency that was reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (STs). The petition claimed that she did not belong to the ST community. Based on a probe committee report, the district collector subsequently ruled that Geetha did not belong to the ST community.