Rosaiah meets Sonia, draws blank

HYDERABAD: Even as former chief minister K Rosaiah landed in Delhi on Tuesday and apparently lobbied with Congress president Sonia Gandhi for a gubernatorial assignment, the ACB case that is pending against him might spoil his broth.Rosaiah, when asked by the party high command to resign to pave the way Kiran Kumar Reddy, was promised governorship to make up for what he was losing.Rosaiah, who has been waiting for the the party to break the good news ever since, met the party president apparently to remind her of the promise but the party leadership appeared to have second thoughts since the ACB case against Rosaiah is a serious one.Rosaiah, when he was the chief minister, conferred ownership rights on a piece of a 9acre land at Ameerpet in Hyderabad in favour of one GN Naidu though the land belonged to the metropolitan authority. The ACB booked Naidu, Rosaiah and seven others, acting on a petition filed by an advocate T Ranga Rao.One of the accused, Satyendra Prasad, moved the High Court for quashing of the case but the court said the ACB should continue its investigation but no arrests till the probe was complete.The forces behind the case are preparing to address a media conference on Wednesday to urge the Centre not to appoint Rosaiah to any constitutional post since the case ACB was investigating a serious case and that he might be arrested any time. They contend that the High Court order gave immunity against the arrest only to Satyendra Prasad and that it was not a blanket order covering all the nine accused.As the Congress leadership had already promised governorship to Rosaiah, it reportedly asked chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to find out if the ACB case could be dropped. Accordingly, the chief minister sought and obtained a report from advocategeneral A Sudarshan Reddy who opined that the case against Rosaiah was serious in nature. He told the chief minister that there was evidence that Rosaiah overrode the recommendation of the then principal secretary (revenue) against granting ownership rights to Naidu.