Another minister faces arrest warrant

Yet another minister in the Manmohan Singh government appeared to be in trouble after a local court yesterday issued a non-bailable warrant against Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao in a case of alleged cheating.

Taking congnizance of a private complaint lodged by an advocate N Prahalad, fifth metropolitan magistrate M Gandhi issued the warrant against Rao, minister without portfolio, and asked him to appear before the court.

Prahalad, who is also a TRS activist, told the court that Rao had collected a huge amount of money from the party activists who wanted party tickets to contest the last Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Rao neither returned the money nor deposited it in the party's account, Prahalad, who unsuccessfully tried to get the party ticket from Mahaboobabad in the Warangal district, alleged in his complaint.

Prahalad said he served notices to Rao but there was no acknowledgement received from him. The counsels for Rao filed recall petition before the court urging to withdraw the warrant. The court reserved its ruling for tomorrow.

Rao later told reporters that the court issued the non-bailable warrant because of his non-appearance.

He admitted that the party had taken money from ticket seekers and was refunding to those who had not been given ticket. It was the party decision to collect the amount from aspirants for tickets.

Coal Minister Shibu Soren had to resign last month after a court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him in the Chirrudih massacre case in 1975. He is in judicial custody now.

Meanwhile, the Congress yesterday described as "politically motivated" the cheating case in which a non-bailable warrant was issued against the TRS chief.

"We are aware of the warrant issued against Rao. We are verifying the facts. Probably, it is politically motivated," party spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan said when asked to comment on the development.

Side-stepping questions whether Rao should follow Soren and resign from the Union Cabinet, she said the matter was coming up for hearing later on Wednesday and "let us wait and see what happens".