IndianExpress News::

Cops knock on Shankar Rao’s door

On the radar of the Cyberabad police in connection with the Green Fields land scam, former minister P Shankar Rao made himself scarce when police went to his Musheerabad residence to question him on Saturday.

A posse will be sent to the Secunderabad Cantonment MLA’s house again Sunday. Police sources said his arrest is imminent.

Shankar Rao, well-known for his shotgun utterances, had reportedly left home on Friday evening. Police were unaware of his whereabouts. His mobile phone was switched off.

On Saturday afternoon, a police team led by Alwal ACP G Ganesh Reddy descended on the MLA’s house to question him regarding the land scam. They waited three hours for him to return, but in vain. His family said they didn’t know where he was. Sources said the posse carried out a search of the house.

Asked if an arrest was likely, ACP Ganesh Reddy said they would question Shankar Rao first.

The case relates to a complaint by residents of Green Fields Colony in Kanajiguda village in Alwal Municipality that Shankar Rao and his brother Dayanand were claiming ownership of 875 plots on the basis of fake documents.

Following the complaint, cases were registered against the MLA under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 197(knowingly issuing a false certificate), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

In Oct. 2011, a petition was filed by one S Chandrasekhar of the Green Fields Plot Owners Association in the Tenth Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Malkajgiri, alleging that the minister misused his position to grab 72 acres (survey nos. 373, 375, 376, 378, 379 and 386) in Kanajiguda village in Malkajgiri mandal by forging documents that claimed to show that the land belonged to his father Yedla Achaiah.

Recently, the High court lifted its stay on the issue of an arrest warrant against the former minister, following which the police went to his house on Saturday.

Shankar Rao’s daughter Sushmita condemned the police visit. ‘’Police officials came to our house without a search warrant and broke a cupboard,” she complained. They paid no heed to her ailing mother’s insistence that Shankar Rao was not at home. The policemen entered the house anyway, Sushmita said. She alleged this was a high-level conspiracy against her father because he has been speaking out against graft. ‘’What sin has my father committed? Have we murdered anyone or commited theft? Do we look like criminals?’’ she said angrily. Asked where her father was, she said: ‘’My father is away to perform pooja for the well-being of this government.’’ It is learnt that Rao is in Shani Siganapur in Maharashtra.