I'm not a public servant: Vijay Sai

HYDERABAD: V Vijay Sai Reddy, the financial advisor of YS Jagan , objected to CBI's terming him as public servant and charged the investigating agency with bringing him under the definintion of this term only to satisfy the jurisdictional issue pertaining to the special CBI court that has the jurisdiction to look into only those cases connected to the prevention of corruption Act, involving public servants.There is another CBI court in Nampally criminal courts complex that hears other CBI cases. But this special court deals with corruption cases involving public servants. Earlier, several accused -- Gali Janardhan Reddy and BV Srinivas Reddy and Koneru Prasad of Emaar scam -- have raised similar objections to their being labelled as public servants.
Umamaheswara Rao, senior counsel, appeared for Vijay Sai Reddy and told the court that it could not remand his client in judicial custody because he was not a public servant and this court had no jurisdiction to do so. CBI counsel B Ravindranath told the court that Vijay Sai had earlier worked with Oriental Bank of Commerce as its director and was also with Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD) as its board member and, hence falls under the definition of a public servant.
Special judge B Nagamaruthi Sarma observed that he would decide the issue later and made it clear that the court had the power to remand any person who was produced before it after arrest. Following a request from Vijay Sai Reddy, the judge, however, directed the CBI to produce him in the court on Wednesday to enable him to watch the hearing pertaining to the CBI plea seeking his custody.