KCR welcomes CBI probe, targets Lakshmaiah for amassing illegal property

HYDERABAD: With just five days left for polls in Telangana, the city CBI special court’s direction to the investigating agency to inquire into accumulation of assets by K. Chandrasekhar Rao, T. Harish Rao and Vijayashanti, has caused a political furore.

“My life is an open book. A CBI inquiry is most welcome. It’s a Congress conspiracy. The party is unable to digest that TRS will sweep the polls. I am asking the PM to go ahead with CBI or DBI inquiry,” said Mr Rao.

The TRS sees the CBI inquiry as an act of vendetta against the party’s refusal to merge with the Congress, he said. Mr Rao also asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is visiting Hyderabad, to first sack “chor aur zamin ka lootera (thief and land grabber)” TPCC president, Ponnala Lakshmaiah.

Mr Lakshmaiah had said that if voted to power, the Congress would order a probe into the accumulation of illegal wealth by Mr Rao and his family.
In a tit-for-tat allegation, while addressing a meeting in Narasapur, Mr Rao spewed fire on Mr Lakshmaiah, alleging him of illegal occupation of 14 acre of assigned lands in Warangal and promised to send him to jail if TRS came to power.

‘Harish struck a deal with Krishna’

The order issued by the Special Court for CBI cases read, “The complaint is forwarded to the SP, CBI under Section 156(3) CrPC with a direction to register an FIR, investigate the matter and take necessary action with intimation to this court.”

The petitioner had approached the HC a year ago and was directed to the special court. Ms Vijayashanti was earlier with the TRS, but is now contesting on a Congress ticket.
According to the petitioner, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao started the agitation for the separate state of Telangana solely for his personal gain and for amassing wealth. A founder member of the TRS, Mr M. Raghunandan Rao, had made similar allegations against Mr Chandrasekhar Rao in May 2013, in front of the media. His speech was downloaded, copied on a compact disc and submitted as evidence in the present case.

The petitioner alleged that after the formation of the TRS, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao accumulated huge wealth in the form of both movable and immovable properties. Even though there were protests from within the party and outside, the criticism was muffled by brute force and physical threats, the petitioner alleged. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s accumulation of wealth in the form of immovable properties, farmhouses, ships, and private seaports was a top secret confined to the inner circle, but these secrets were revealed by Mr Raghunandan Rao after he was expelled from the party. Mr Raghunandan Rao is a witness in the current petition.

Mr Harish Rao, MLA from Siddipet, the petition said, had approached the HC against Padmalaya Studio owned by actor Krishna, alleging that the latter resorted to anomalies in utilising the government land but did not pursue the matter. Now, Mr Harish Rao has settled the issue for more than Rs 80 lakh in the presence of M.V. Sreenivasa Prasad, husband of Ms Vijayashanti. A producer from Adilabad is also involved and Ms Vijayashanti is aware of this, the petition said.

The petitioner alleged that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Harish Rao collected Rs 10 crore from Nimmagadda Prasad of Matrix Lab for establishing the media outfits TNews and Namaste Telangana. They also collected money from Ranga Rao, who is an accused in the Emaar case. The TRS camp also made calls to industrialists to cooperate or else the land favours they got from the government would be targeted. There was also mention about Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K.T. Rama Rao receiving kickbacks in the Emaar scam.

The petitioner claimed that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao was granted one acre of government land to build a party office, on condition that it be used for the party and shouldn’t be used for residential or commercial purposes. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao started running Telangana Broadcasting Pvt Ltd from here, which is owned by him and his family. The TRS boss is the director of the company and has about 5,50,000 shares in the company.