Hyderabad: Only three days before campaigning in Telangana comes to an end, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leadership on Friday suffered a jolt when a CBI special court in Hyderabad ordered an investigation into the assets of its top leaders — K. Chandrasekhar Rao and T. Harish Rao.

The court has ordered a similar probe into the assets of Vijayashanti who was TRS MP and is now a Congress candidate from Medak Assembly constituency.

The court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register a First Information Report (FIR), conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

The CBI special court passed the order after a petition filed by Hyderabad-based advocate Balaji Vadera, on the basis of allegations levelled by a former TRS leader Raghunandan Rao.

Raghunandan had alleged that the TRS leadership was involved in amassing illegal wealth through extorting money from businesses and industrialists, under the guise of agitating for Telangana state.

The petitioner had earlier approached the High Court but it had asked him to first approach a lower court.

The petition also alleged that a massive amount of Rs1 billion (Dh60 million) had changed hands at the residence of Vijayashanti. This was an illegally extorted money, Vadera alleged.

Responding to the court order TRS president Rao said he welcomed it and was ready to face the CBI or any other inquiry.

“This is a conspiracy of the Congress party, which is afraid of a TRS wave across Telangana. They know that the people have decided to reject all other parties”, he said. “Such acts of Congress party cannot brow beat us,” he said

Another TRS leader, K. Harish Rao, also saw the Congress’s hand behind the entire affair.

“Congress is resorting to these conspiracies to take revenge for our refusal to merge the TRS with the Congress”, he said. “We are ready to face any probe. Ours is a party of movement. We were not in power. Congress was in power. Where is the question of we amassing wealth”, he wondered.

“It is not new for the Congress party to misuse CBI for political ends,” he said.

Various other leaders have also welcomed the CBI court order.

“The probe into the corruption charges should be expeditious,” said Lok Satta President Jaiprakash Narayan.

Senior Congress leader and former minister Danam Nagendar also welcomed the court order and reiterated the allegations that the TRS leaders had extorted billions of rupees from the people on the pretext of fighting for Telangana.

“KCR, his son, daughter, nephew all were involved in these activities”, he said.

While KCR was contesting from Medak Lok Sabha and Gajwel assembly constituencies and Harish Rao was TRS candidate from Siddipet assembly constituency, Vijaya Shanti was in the fray in Medak assembly constituency as Congress candidate.