Chief Minister sought to underplay the possibility of the arrest, stating that there was not much difference between Chandrashekar Rao’s confinement in his Erravalli farmhouse and stay at the Charlapalli Central jail in the event of his arrest in future
Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy seems to be in no mood to arrest his predecessor K. Chandrashekar Rao against whom the Justice P.C. Ghose commission of inquiry on the Kaleswharam lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) had fixed liability for all acts of omission and commission, a political gamble that may take tilt Congress fortunes either way.
Speaking with mediapersons in New Delhi on Thursday, the Chief Minister sought to underplay the possibility of the arrest, stating that there was not much difference between Chandrashekar Rao’s confinement in his Erravalli farmhouse and stay at the Charlapalli Central jail in the event of his arrest in future.
“Where is the need to arrest him when he has imposed a self-arrest in the farm house,” Revanth Reddy said. “There is not much difference between his farmhouse and jail. There will be visitors to both places and he will be under the vigil of police either way,” he added.
The Chief Minister’s observations gained significance against the backdrop of growing demand to fix criminal liability on Chandrashekar Rao and other BRS leaders including former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao for gross irregularities in the KLIS that cost the state exchequer heavily. As the law does not permit the Ghose commission to recommend criminal action against those responsible, it has asked the government to take necessary steps.
The former chief minister’s name is also believed to figure in the phone-tapping case with the police that have been investigating the case claiming that some of the accused had admitted to have resorted to the illegal act at the behest of “big boss”. Congress as well as Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have claimed that ‘big boss’ was Chandrashekar Rao.
Revanth Reddy appears to have taken a calculated risk in hinting at his opinion on Chandrashekar Rao’s arrest. “The Congress has been waging a war against the BRS from the conceptualisation of the KLIS to its damage just before elections. Where there is enough evidence to take the KLIS scam to its logical conclusion and fix criminal liability, there will be pressure from within and outside Congress,” a senior party leader pointed out.
The Chief Minister, it seems, has decided to address the issue politically rather than legally and as an administrative issue as was evident from his assertion that Chandrashekar Rao was already convicted in the people’s court and that he had been serving out the sentence.
Though the BJP may dub it as dilution of the Congress’ stand, the arrest could be a bigger gamble, a minister said, adding that the party leadership may not have be sure of how people would have reacted to the arrest of septuagenarian leader, who has been taking ill now and then.
