The Hindu : Front Page : Botcha Satyanarayana offers to quit

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Friday, Mar 16, 2007
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Botcha Satyanarayana offers to quit

Special Correspondent

Volkswagen probe: Marketing Minister appears before Lok Ayukta

FACING QUESTIONS: Minister for Marketing Botcha Satyanarayana arriving at the Lok Ayukta office for an inquiry into the Volkswagen controversy in Hyderabad on Thursday. — PHOTO: SATISH H.

HYDERABAD: Marketing Minister Botcha Satyanarayana has offered to resign from his post if it came in the way of Lok Ayukta's probe into the Rs. 11.67-crore scandal that broke out in mid-2005 when German auto major Volkswagen explored possibilities of setting up a unit at Visakhapatnam.

Mr. Satyanarayana, then Industries Minister, on Thursday appeared before Lok Ayukta R. Ramanujam in response to summons issued by him. According to Minister's counsel O. Kalaishnath Reddy, the Lok Ayukta had initiated suo motu proceedings to examine the Minister as his version of the issues relating to the Volkswagen were at variance with those of L.V. Subrahmaniam, then Managing Director of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation.

The Minister told reporters later that he had never sought exemptions from investigation of the scandal as he had done no wrong. He was prepared to face any inquiry, he said, adding that he was never found to be wavering in making public his action.

`No bungling'

Mr. Satyanarayana also said there could have been procedural lapses in efforts to clinch the deal with Volkswagen but certainly the State Government did not bungle the issue. Some leaders tried to gain political mileage by showing him in poor light. However, people taught them a fitting lesson in the elections. Responding to a question by Justice Ramanujam, the Minister said that the allegations of corruption levelled against him in the Volkswagen deal were not true. The Lok Ayukta found fault with a report published in Andhra Jyothi, a Telugu daily, that the institution had gathered material to prove the Minister's involvement in the scandal. He said the report was false. He adjourned the case to April 2.

The Minister's lawyer informed Justice Ramanujam that he would submit on Friday the list of files and documents to facilitate the probe.

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