Thai government gives consent for Kosaraju’s prosecution

The Thailand government has given its consent to the Andhra Pradesh government for prosecution of Kosaraju Venkateswara Rao, former chairman of Krushi Cooperative Bank, in a share certificate forgery case registered in Visakhapatnam.

Rao is already facing trial in the bank deposit fraud case. The Royal Thai government’s consent for prosecution has become necessary as Rao, facing trial and jailed in Thailand, was extradited by the south-east Asian country at India’s request. The Thai government waived the principle of speciality to enable the Indian government to prosecute Venkateswara Rao for the second offence other than the  Krushi Bank fraud.

After securing Rao’s extradition in the Krushi Bank case, the crime investigation department police  took up the matter, through the state government, with the ministry of external affairs for writing to the Royal Thai government to waive the principle of speciality to enable the state government to prosecute Rao in a share certificate fraud case which was registered at the IV Town police station in Visakhapatnam.

Some share certificates were forged/faked/stolen from Steel City Share Dealers Welfare Association in Visakhapatnam and sent to the companies concerned seeking transfer of ownership. The compnaies rejected the request, citing discrepancies in signatures. Additional DGP (CID) SV Ramanamurthy said Venkateswara Rao was one of the nine accused who committed the offence which was charged in the jurisdictional court in 2005.  The waiver of  principle of speciality by Royal Thai Government would empower CID to prosecute Kosaraju Venkateswara Rao in the Visakhapatnam case also.

After defrauding Krushi Bank’s depositors in 2001, Rao had escaped from law for about four years. The fugitive fled to London and tried to get a work permit there but failed. Having come under an Interpol’s red-corner notice, he then sneaked into Thailand and ran IT company in Bangkok. He was arrested in November 2005 and had been languishing in jail there. He gave consent on April 10 to go to India to face trial and the Bangkok court gave its clearance on April 26 for his extradition.