Noose tightens around Jagan, CBI court to take up DA case hearing

The disproportionate assets case of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be taken up by the Special CBI Court in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

The CBI had filed 11 charge sheet against Jagan Mohan Reddy and the other accused in the disproportionate assets and quid pro quo cases.

Besides Jagan, YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy, MLA Dharmana Prasada Rao, P Sabitha Indra Reddy, who is now the Education Minister of Telangana, and several senior IAS officers and industrialists are involved in the disproportionate assets case.

The Andhra CM, who has been facing the CBI case since 2011, was in jail for 16 months between May 2012 to September 2013.

Jagan had avoided attending the court personally by filing a petition under Section 317 of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking exemption from personal appearances, stating that he was not able to attend the court due to compelling reasons.

Meanwhile, the CBI has postponed a hearing on the illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) owned by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. In 2011, the CBI had filed a charge sheet in a special court in the illegal mining case involving Gali Janardhan Reddy and Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Cases against Jagan Mohan Reddy are being pursued with renewed vigor after the Supreme Court observed that 4,500 criminal cases were pending against sitting and former legislators across the country. A bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who has sought a lifetime ban on politicians convicted in criminal cases, from contesting elections. After hearing the petition, SC advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Supreme Court had sought details of all pending criminal cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs from 24 High Courts in the country.

Following this, Jagan Mohan Reddy in an open letter addressed to Chief Justice S A Bobde on October 6 had alleged that the Supreme Court’s second most-senior judge N V Ramana had been influencing the sittings of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, including the roster of a few judges. Reddy cited instances of how cases important to the Opposition Telugu Desam Party were “allocated to a few judge. Further, three days after sending the letter to the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Minister called a press meet and made the letter public. Various bodies of lawyers, including the Bar Council of India, the Supreme Court Bar Association, the Supreme Court Advocates’ on Record Association, the Delhi Bar Association, and many other Bar Associations condemned Jagan’s letter.