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Congress party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad. (Supplied)
Conmen could come in any form or shape, pull a fast one, and disappear. They would even appear as personnel from political strategist Sunil Kanugolu’s team, a few Congress leaders in Telangana learnt.
A few men approached some Congress leaders claiming to be from Kanugolu’s team, offering to conduct a quick survey on their poll prospects in their constituencies. The men also told the leaders that they could tweak the survey results a bit to ensure them party tickets.
The Congress leaders fell for it — well, almost — since Kanugolu has been remaining invisible and powerful. However, they were quick to realise what was coming next. Finding a match in the leaders, the men quietly slipped away.
Incidentally, Botsa Satyanarayana, now a minister in the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy Cabinet in Andhra Pradesh, was not that lucky. While holding the industries portfolio in then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s Cabinet, Satyanarayana inadvertently made the state poorer by ₹11.5 crore.
He handed over the amount to two representatives of automobile manufacturer Volkswagen as incidental expenses to set up a facility in Visakhapatnam. The “representatives” presented their case so convincingly that senior IAS officers, too, took the bait hook, line, and sinker.
Little did they then know that the automobile major did not know of its “representatives” conning an Indian state. However, upon learning about the incident, the firm offered to compensate. Rajasekhara Reddy rejected the offer and handed over the case to the CBI.
Satyanarayana was later absolved. The case is still under trial.
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