HYDERABAD, Nov 7: Salman Khan has some company. Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi and several Andhra ministers are alleged to have attended a dinner where meat of wild animals, including some endangered species such as peacock, was served. The Forest Department is learnt to have confirmed this in its preliminary investigation. Forest Minister K E Prabhakar has said that once the government gets the report, action will be taken against all those guilty, ``however powerful they may be.''The Congress has demanded that the Speaker and the ministers be arrested for violating the Wildlife Protection Act.
Sataynarayana Pandu, TDP leader, who hosted the dinner at Marlakunta village in Khammam district, is absconding. So are the cooks and the videographer who recorded the dinner function. Even Pandu's relatives have left their house in the village.
Speaking to reporters today, the Forest Minister said the government was ready to order a high-level probe into the incident after it received the Forest Department'spreliminary report. He declined to elaborate saying it wouldn't be ``appropriate'' for him to say anything before the report comes.
A senior Forest official said the identity of every invitee to the dinner had been established with the help of available photographs. According to him, more than 12 senior officials, including the district collector and the superintendent of police and a host of lower cadre staff, were present.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was briefed about the entire episode.Chief Conservator of Forests T Ramakrishna said the government was trying to get eyewitness accounts to ascertain the facts. He claimed that only Revenue and police officials not Forest staff were present at the function.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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