Round Two: ACB grills KTR for 7 hrs
Hyderabad: Sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Monday grilled BRS working president KT Rama Rao for over seven hours at ACB office in round two in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the Formula E Race.
That done, the ACB sleuths asked KTR to surrender by Wednesday the mobile phone used by him during the race and alerted him that he could be called again for questioning.
KTR had told the officials during questioning that he did not bring his mobile. On January 8 too, he was grilled for seven hours.
Earlier in the day, party leaders and members reached Telangana Bhavan in large numbers expressing solidarity with their leader who had come there before going to the ACB office.
The inquiry, which started at 10:00 am, ended at 6 pm during which the investigating authorities questioned KTR about alleged misuse of government funds for a private event and giving oral instructions for transferring money to a foreign company.
According to sources, three officials of the ACB together asked KTR over 60 questions seeking clarifications from the former minister.
They also asked questions on the statement of the FEO Company.
After recording the submissions made by the BRS leader, the ACB officials told KTR that they would be calling him once again for the inquiry. It is learnt that the officials tried to get hold of the mobile phone of the BRS leader while he was in the inquiry room. However, KTR seems to have told the officials that he did not bring his mobile phone to their office. The officials then asked the BRS leader to surrender the mobile phone he had used during the Formula E Race by June 18.
Talking to the media later, KTR said that it was a 'petty case' and that there were useless questions during the inquiry and nothing more than that. 'Revanth Reddy can't do anything to me. At the most, he may send me to jail for 15 days,' said KTR.
Earlier in the day, tense moments prevailed at Telangana Bhavan where there was heavy police bandobast as there was a meeting of the Cabinet ministers in the Integrated Command Control Center (ICCC).
Although BRS activists came to the Telangana Bhavan in large numbers in support of their leader, the police personnel locked the main gate of the building to stop any movement towards the Integrated Command Control Center, where the Chief Minister and other Ministers were supposed to come. The police personnel tried to shutter commercial establishments in the vicinity. Following protests by BRS activists, the police later removed the locks.
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