The interrogation, which commenced around 11 am, was still continuing at 9 pm, amidst rumours that he would be arrested on charges of Fera violations. Prabhakar Rao had been served notices by the directorate earlier at Hyderabad, to appear before the officials for examination.
The questioning was to centre around the sequence of events that led to the signing of the deal between NFL and the Turkish supplier, Karsan Ltd, and regarding the alleged kickbacks paid to different persons in India in connection with the deal. The directorate's investigations is to ascertain if the slush money was used to buy land at Nampalli at Hyderabad. The land has been purchased in the name of a company floated by Sambasiva Rao, the Indian agent of Karsan Limited and a key accused in the scam. He was recently granted bail by the trial court. It is alleged that the purchase was a benami investment for Prabhakar Rao.
The former Prime Minister's son has already been interrogated by the CBI in connection with the purchase of the Nampalli land.
On Tuesday, the directorate had also questioned Madhav Rao, a relative of Prabhakar Rao and Anand Krishnamurthy, son of a former PMO official, AVR Krishnamurthy, in connection with the episode.
Meanwhile, the CBI yesterday carried on the examination of Anil Sharma, a minister in the Himachal Pradesh cabinet and son of the former communication minister for the third successive day.
Sukh Ram's daughter, Ritu, and her husband, Colonel R K Sharma, are yet to be served notices by the CBI. The agency is seeking to interrogate the couple to ascertain properties which are suspected to have been amassed by the former minister.
Officials said they expected to complete shortly the groundwork to grill Sukh Ram on the specifics of his properties and telecom deals, when he lands in India.