Hyderabad Court orders CBI probe into assets of TRS Chief, K Chandrasekhar Rao, others

HYDERABAD: A court in Hyderabad on Friday ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged disproportionate assets of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao, his nephew T Harish Rao and former party MP M Vijaya Shanthi.

The timing of the development assumes significance as it comes a week ahead of simultaneous elections for 119 assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana region on April 30. Responding to a petition filed by an advocate, the CBI court judge N Balayogi has directed the anticorruption bureau unit of CBI to register a first information report and inquire into the alleged disproportionate assets of the accused.

Though several parties including Congress, Telugu Desam Party and BJP had repeatedly alleged corruption and extortion by the TRS president and his family, this is the first time that a formal complaint was filed in a court seeking a probe. The petitioner alleged that the party leaders during the statehood agitation had amassed wealth through “corruption, nepotism and acts of blackmailing and extortion of cash for ransoms.”