Andhra MP gets temporary relief in titanium bribery case

Parliamentarian K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao received a temporary breather Monday when Andhra Pradesh High Court directed police not to take any action till further orders on red corner notice or warrant against him in the titanium bribery case.

On a petition filed by the Rajya Sabha member challenging the red corner notice issued by the Interpol, the high court directed the Crime Investigation Department (CID) not to take any action till the final hearing.

The court also issued notices to the union home ministry and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CID submitted to the court the red corner notice received from the CBI and said they were waiting for a provisional warrant to arrest him.

Director General of Police B. Prasada Rao had said Sunday that the CID received the red corner notice from the CBI but since it was not accompanied by a warrant, they are in touch with the CBI.

The Interpol sent the notice to the CBI after a US Federal Jury indicted the Congress MP and five others on charges of receiving bribes of $18.5 million from an American firm to allow it to mine titanium in Andhra Pradesh.

Ramachandra Rao, a close aide of former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has denied charges against him and appealed to the court to declare the red corner notice as unconstitutional and a violation of the civil liberties.

He argued in the his petition that no US court has jurisdiction for trying an offence that had happened in India. He said the US court cannot indict an Indian citizen without conducting any inquiry and without issuing any notice to the accused individual.

Ramachandra Rao said that the action of the US court goes against the provisions of the Indo-US treaty of 1997 and also the Extradition Act, 1962.