Hyderabad, Jan 8 (PTI) The Telangana High Court on Wednesday allowed a lawyer to accompany BRS leader K T Rama Rao to the ACB's office where he will be questioned in a case related to alleged unauthorised payments to conduct a Formula E race, on January 9.

The court, however, made it clear that the advocate would not be present in the same room where the ACB sleuths would be examining Rama Rao.

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The advocate can sit in a room where he (the advocate) can see his client and investigating officer and observe the proceedings, the court said.

Justice K Lakshman was hearing a House Motion petition filed by Rama Rao seeking a direction to the ACB to allow an advocate to be with him during the questioning by the probe agency.

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Justice Lakshman directed Rama Rao's counsel to submit a list of lawyers so that one of them could accompany the former minister.

High drama unfolded at the Telangana ACB headquarters on January 6 after Rama Rao, who was summoned in connection with the ongoing investigation into the Formula E race case, was denied the assistance of his lawyer, prompting him to submit his statement outside the office.

As the BRS working president was denied the assistance of his lawyer, he refused to be questioned by the anti-graft agency and left the ACB's office without appearing before the officials. Though he handed over his written statement intended for submission to an ACB official, outside the office. The agency issued him a fresh notice for an appearance on January 9.

The ACB on December 19 registered a case against Rama Rao, over alleged payments, some of it in foreign currency without approvals, to conduct the race in 2023 during the previous BRS regime.

The case was registered under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC dealing with criminal misappropriation, criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy that allegedly resulted in a loss to the government exchequer to the tune of about Rs 55 crore.

Rama Rao, who was Municipal Administration Minister during the previous BRS regime, now an MLA, has been named as the prime accused in the case registered by the ACB.

Though the race was supposed to be held in February 2024 as well, it was cancelled after the Congress government assumed office in December 2023.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)