The minister and two senior IAS officers, also accused in the case appeared before the court of principal special judge for CBI cases which had earlier summoned them after taking cognisance of the fourth charge sheet filed against Rao and senior bureaucrats---Manmohan Singh and M Samuel---besides the Kadapa MP.
The court had also directed all the 14 accused named in the chargesheet to appear before it today.
The charge sheet pertains to VANPIC project, whose promoter (industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad), allegedly invested Rs 854 crore in the companies belonging to Jagan towards a largesse for which the then AP government, led by late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, doled out many favours in the form of awarding the project.
Dharmana was named as accused number 5 in the Vanpic aspect of the Jagan assets case in the charge sheet that was filed before the trial court by the CBI on August 14. He was the revenue minister in the YSR regime between 2004-2009 including the period when the Vanpic project was conceived.
It was alleged that as revenue minister in 2008-09, "Dharmana Prasada Rao played a key role in fixing low market price for the Vanpic land and acted more in connivance with another accused Nimmagadda Prasad."
The minister has already submitted his resignation to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, though it was yet to be accepted.