HYDERABAD: Stoutly denying that he had written a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi recently on the state of things in the state Congress, handlooms, textiles and small-scale industries minister P Shankar Rao has demanded that the government order a probe against TV channels which made the claims creating a flutter in the Congress.
A section of the electronic media beamed `breaking news' on Monday that Shankar Rao dashed off a letter to Sonia on her birthday on December 9, making charges of corruption against chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and several ministers including P Sabita Indra Reddy, N Raghuveera Reddy and Ponnala Laxmaiah.
The reports suggested that Rao told Gandhi that PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana engaged in a battle for power with the chief minister, and urged the AICC president to remove Kiran Kumar Reddy as chief minister.
Shankar Rao told reporters at the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) office here on Monday that the TV reports were "manipulated, forged and orchestrated".� Rao said he would decide whether to file criminal and civil cases against the TV channels. He� said the letter story was nothing but aimed at damaging his image and urged the chief minister to order a high-level inquiry to bring out the truth.
He alleged that some unknown persons had stolen his letterheads from his office, forged his signature and fabricated the 'news'. He recalled he had lodged a complaint with the chief secretary in the past that his letterheads were missing.
He said he met Sonia Gandhi on December 9 along with three other leaders but did not submit any letter as reported by the electronic media. A thorough probe would reveal the truth, he said and added that he was ready for any inquiry.
Rao said that he was fighting against corruption and because of his efforts the CBI took up probe into a few cases.
from 11-02-10
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