Cong leaders shamed India globally: Naidu

• To write to President, PM, Guv, CBI and FBI
• Demands thorough probe into titanium scam
• Alleges KVP, YSR demanded kickbacks for contract
• JP demands that CBI work closely with FBI to unearth the scam

Hyderabad: With the polls round the corner, the latest news that KVP Ramanchandra Rao, a former advisor to late CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, is deeply involved in the Titanium project scam has given a new weapon to the opposition in the State. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that he would write a letter to the President, the PM, the Governor, the CBI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US (FBI), demanding a through probe into the scam. The FBI has mentioned the name of KVP along with five other who are supposedly involved in this scam. The FBI also applied to the federal court for seizing the assets of the accused.

Addressing a press conference, Naidu said the scam came to light after the FBI filed a charge-sheet in Chicago court naming YSR, KVP and YSR’s close family member along with Ukrainian industrialist Dmitro Firtash for their suspected roles in $18.5 million bribery for a titanium contract in Andhra Pradesh.

Naidu said that the Ukrainian industrialist allegedly paid Rs 111 crore to YSR and KVP to secure mining licences in the name of an unnamed firm identified as “ Company A” , headquartered in Chicago, in the MoU signed between the State government and the company in 2006. The charge-sheet clearly mentioned that YSR and KVP threatened to cancel the MoU if they were not given shares in the mining, Naidu alleged and said that the role of YSR’s son and YSR Congress Party president Jaganmohan Reddy could not be ruled out.

Saying the Congress leaders brought disrepute to the nation at international level, Naidu sought to know the whereabouts of AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in- law Robert Vadra who has not been seen in the public life in the recent days.

Lok Satta Party national President Jayaprakash Narayan demanded that the CBI to act in close concert with the FBI to unearth the scam involving Indian politicians in grant of licences for titanium exploration.

In a media statement, JP demanded speedy and efficient investigation into the case and stringent punishment for the guilty. The culprits should be removed from the public office and sentenced to rigorous jail terms. In addition, the government should confiscate all their properties, he demanded. JP recalled that the Lok Satta succeeded in getting the 122 arbitrarily and illegally granted 2-G spectrum licences cancelled by the Supreme Court. The Union Government had so far realised Rs 50,000 crore by re-auctioning the spectrum.

The Lok Satta, he said, always fought for allocation of scarce natural resources through transparent and competitive international bidding and imposition of a windfall profits tax as in Britain. Had these two measures been in place, scams relating to allocation of telecom spectrum, iron ore and coal mines and titanium exploration could have been averted. JP appreciated Governor E S L Narasimhan’s action in cancelling the post-graduate medical entrance examination. It may be recalled that the Governor had ordered a CID inquiry following a representation from JP about the malpractices in the examination.