Former TDP MLA Gets 5-Year Jail Term For Bank Fraud

Hyderabad: A special CBI court here has convicted former Kadiri MLA Kandikunta Venkata Prasad and sentenced him to five years imprisonment in a case relating to duplicate Demand Drafts (DDs) of State Bank of India. Prasad also was imposed a fine of Rs3 lakh in addition to the imprisonment.

The court has also sentenced the bank’s assistant manager Narsing Rao to five years imprisonment and former Inspector Venkata Mohan to three years imprisonment. Prasad and others siphoned off Rs3.20 crore through duplicate DDs.

Besides SBI DDs fraud case, Kandikunta had nine cases filed against him under sections 420, 302, 307, 324, 375, 471, 147, 148, 149 of IPC, according to the affidavit filed by him at the time of elections. As he was denied a ticket by TDP, Prasad contested as an independent from Kadiri 2004 but stood in second position. Again he contested on TDP ticket in 2009 election and won the seat. But he lost the election in 2014.

Despite his criminal record, TDP has appointed him as the party's in-charge of Kadiri constituency and was not suspended even after his conviction.