APCC Chief to meet AICC President, to offer resignation

Hyderabad, Sep 10 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President and MP K Keshava Rao's son Venkat was ''arrested'' tonight in connection with the murder case even as the party leader rushed to Delhi to offer his resignation from his post to ensure free and fair investigation of the case.

However, the Jubilee Hills Assitant Commissioner of Police (ACP) V Ramakrishna told newspersons that ''Venkat is not arrested. He is taken into custody for interrogation as the murder case is pending against him.'' After addressing a news conference here, Mr Rao immediatley left for New Delhi to meet AICC President Sonia Gandhi tomorrow to seek her permission to relinquish his post as the APCC President.

He said he was offering to resign to ensure free and fair investigation to bring out the truth and avoid any criticism that he would unduly influence the investigation because of his post (as APCC President).

Terming the APCC Chief's decission to offer resignation a 'political drama', Opposition TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu had demanded the arrest of Venkat and thorough inquiry into the murder case.

Mr Keshava Rao took over as APCC President in October 2004 and his three-year term would complete by the end of October this year.

Thirty-two-year-old realtor, Prashanth Reddy, was found with a gun shot wound at the residence of Venkat, the APCC president's son, yesterday afternoon and was declared brought dead at a corporate hospital.

Venkat, supposedly a close friend of the deceased, was also hospitalised in the same hospital few hours later.

Banjara Hills police registered a case of murder against Venkat after Raghavendra Reddy, the father of the deceased, filed a complaint, rejecting suggestion that the realtor had committed suicide.

UNI