The High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest petition filed by former minister and Secunderabad Cantonment MLA P Shankar Rao seeking CBI probe into alleged multi-crore red sanders scam and action against chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, forest minister S Vijayarama Raju and several senior officials responsible for it.
A division bench in its final judgment, said no public interest involved in the case filed by Rao. It felt that some other factors have weighed in filing the petition.
Rao, in his petition, made serious allegations against Kiran Reddy in the red sanders issue, alleging that red sanders fetched high price in international market, but the state government issued proceedings giving away the valuable material at abnormally low prices. Alleging that hundreds of crores have changed hands in the deal, he sought a CBI enquiry.
The government has filed a counter affidavit rebutting all the allegations and placed relevant papers before the court and contended that the petitioner lacks bonafides.
On an earlier occasion, the bench directed Shankar Rao to deposit `20 lakh to show his bonafides. The bench said rival traders came to the court and were ready to pay `5 lakh per tonne.
The petitioner did not deposit the money and wanted modification of the order, which was declined. The case then went up to the Supreme Court and the Cantonment MLA later withdrew his case before the apex court.