COURT RAPS RAO ON SANDERS PLEA

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice P.C. Ghose and Justice Vilas Afzulpurkar, on Monday told counsel appearing for former minister P. Shankar Rao to prove his bonafide by furnishing demand draft equivalent to the amounts offered by alleged contenders to buy red sanders, or else the court will take a serious view and impose costs.

The Bench was dealing with a plea by Dr Rao seeking a direction to conduct CBI probe against Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and forest minister S. Vijayarama Raju for their alleged involvement in selling of red sanders for a throwaway price.

On an earlier occasion, the Bench had asked the petitioner to file an affidavit explaining how he got this formation and substantiate the allegations. The Bench wanted to know if Dr Rao was ready to get a buyer who was ready to purchase the red sanders for the alleged high price. When there was no response, the Bench took a serious view.

A counsel representing for one Suresh had submitted that his client had participated in tenders in 2009 and was not been called for negotiations and he must get justice and be offered higher price than the person selected by the government.

Then the Bench wanted Dr Rao to furnish bank drafts equal to the amounts offered by Suresh. The case was adjourned to January third week.