Andhra Pradesh Secondary Education Minister K Parthasarathy said that he would abide by his party high command’s decision about whether he would continue in cabinet. “I will abide by the decision of the party on the continuation in the cabinet in the wake of a case pending in a lower court at Vijayawada,” he said. A case was filed against him by a returning officer of the Penamaluru assembly constituency for filing a wrong affidavit at the time of his nomination during the 2009 general elections. By the time of filing nomination papers for the 2004 assembly elections, a Hyderabad court imposed two months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5.15 lakh for FERA violation. Later, he approached the AP High Court after paying the penalty to get a stay order. Parthasarathy mentioned this case in his affidavit while filing nomination for the 2004 general elections but failed to do so while filing nominations in 2009. Due to his improper affidavit, the returning officer filed a case in the lower court as per the Election Commission’s advice and the case is pending. About this episode, he told reporters on Thursday that he did not violate FERA and he made payments to a Swiss company only after Reserve Bank of India approval. He said that even the Enforcement Directorate had cleared him. He said that he had approached the High Court against the decision of the economic offences court for a stay order. He claimed that he mentioned details of this case in his 2004 election affidavit but failed to mentioned it in 2009 only due to some technical reasons. He does not face any corruption allegations but only a case pending in a court for not filing proper affidavit, he said. Some opposition leaders took up this issue and demanded his removal from the Andhra Pradesh cabinet, he said. His continuation in the cabinet is totally in the hands of his party’s high command, he said. PTI
