Former Union Minister of State for coal Dasari Narayan Rao has reacted with filmi bravado to the case filed by the CBI against him for his alleged role in the coal scam.
"I am not a coal tiger but a 'Bobbili Tiger'," said Mr Rao, referring to a Telugu film he produced and directed with legendary actor-politician NT Rama Rao. In the 1982 movie, the character of Bobbili Puli is an admirably honest and fearless man.
Dasari Narayan Rao is a former Rajya Sabha MP who was the Union minister of state for coal between May 2004 and April 2008. The twelfth FIR filed by the CBI in the coal allocation scam case has named Mr Rao and his company Sowbhagya Media Ltd as accused.
Mr Rao has been a popular director, producer and actor, considered one of the respected veterans of the Telugu film industry. He is working on his 150th film right now that is ironically named 'Assembly lo dongalu paddaru' (Thieves have come to the assembly) which, as the title suggests, is on political corruption. His earlier Telugu film, MLA Edukondalu', released in 1983, was based on a similar theme.
"All that is happening is being done according to a plan. The truth will come out soon. I want to reassure my fans not to worry," Mr Rao said, a day after his home and offices in Hyderabad were raided.
On Wednesday, the CBI accused Mr Rao of playing a key role in illicitly awarding a coal block in 2008 to Jindal Steel and Power, which is owned and promoted by Naveen Jindal, a Congress MP. At the time, Mr Rao was Minister of State for Coal, and the CBI says he used his influence to help Mr Jindal's firm land mining rights in Jharkhand though it had allegedly misrepresented crucial information in its application.
The CBI FIR says that as a quid pro quo, Mr Jindal's realty companies Jindal Realty routed an investment of 2.25 crore rupees to Sowbhagya Media Ltd, in which Mr Rao's company Siri Media Ltd owns 59.6 per cent stake.
Mr Rao has been associated with the Congress party for more than two decades now. He had positioned himself as a Kapu leader, a space now taken over by Chiranjeevi, who political observers say Dasari Narayan Rao sees as a political rival.