Kodela demands Sabitha to quit

Guntur: Former Home Minister and Telugu Desam Party senior leader Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao on Tuesday demanded Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy to step down immediately as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made her fourth accused in the fresh charge-sheet in connection with YSR Congress Party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy's disproportionate assets case. Addressing the media here, Kodela lambasted Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Botcha Satyanarayana for `trying to mislead' people that `the Chevella Chellemma did not commit any crime.' He ridiculed the Congress leaders for their contention that the minister need not resign until the charges were proved. It was the responsibility of the Chief Minister to drop the tainted minister in the first place. By allowing Sabitha to continue in the cabinet, Kiran Kumar Reddy was breaching the trust of people, he said. Kodela said that Sabitha would be the first woman minister in the State to go to jail on charges of corruption. She was an associate of former Chief Minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy in looting the resources of the State. The late leader had formed a team to rob the minerals, he alleged. ``Rajagopal, Sri Lakshmi and Sabitha were among the members of the team. All the jailed persons in the case are victims of mineral hunger of the late leader,'' he said. Kodela said that YS Jaganmohan Reddy was the ultimate beneficiary of the `resource exploitation' by his late father who `misused authority'. Now, Jagan was ``trying to gain politically by lavish spending of the illegally amassed wealth,'' he said.