New Delhi: The US has requested India for "provisional arrest" of Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao after he was indicted by an American court in an alleged international racketeering conspiracy involving bribes of $18.5 million for allowing mining of Titanium minerals in Andhra Pradesh. In a letter sent by National Crime Bureau of the US through Interpol to CBI, the US authorities have said Rao should be put under provisional arrest till all the documents were handed over to India through diplomatic channels, official sources said.

The sources said CBI sent the letter to the Andhra Pradesh Police asking them to take action against Rao, who was a close aide to late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. The US also informed CBI that Interpol had already been approached for issuance of Red Corner Notice against Rao, who was charged in the US in an alleged international racketeering conspiracy involving bribes worth $18.5 million to state and central government officials in India to allow the mining of Titanium minerals in Andhra Pradesh. A US federal five-count indictment, returned under seal in June 2013 and unsealed in Chicago on April three, charges 65-year-old Rao and five others with one count each of racketeering conspiracy and money laundering and two counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Rao was not immediately available for comments.