Jagan govt to challenge HC gag order in SC

After the Andhra Pradesh High Court on late Tuesday issued an order restraining the media from reporting on corruption charges against several people in the Amaravati land scam, the Jagan government now plans to challenge the order in the Supreme Court.

Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, the public affairs advisor to Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, said the government will approach the apex court.
Despite the High Court order, Ramakrishna Reddy said the ACB FIR named the accused only after finding evidence against them for their involvement in a real estate scam in the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).

Meanwhile, the YSRC MPs raised the issue in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. YSRCP Lok Sabha floor leader Mithun Reddy informed the House that certain powerful people resorted to insider trading in real estate deals in Amaravati. He told the House that the scam involves more than 4,000- acre land in Amaravati. Several powerful people had bought lands as they had prior knowledge that Amaravati would be declared as the state capital. “Several people who are not even income tax assessees had bought lands worth crores of rupees, operating as benamis at the behest of some influential people and their vested interests,” Mithun Reddy told the House.

The YSRCP LS floor leader did not stop there. He said the High Court gag orders were surprising. “This is not just a gag on the media, but it is a gag on institutions and a gag on the system,” he told the House.
Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Gautam Sawang wrote to Information and Public Relations Commissioner asking him to restrain the print, electronic and social media from publishing anything related to the FIR. Sawang also wrote to the management of print, electronic and social media not to publish news articles on the ACB case.