Jagan assets case: Lawyer seeks probe against 6 mantris, 8 babus

HYDERABAD: Special Judge B Nagamaruthi Sarma of the CBI court on Wednesday posted to Thursday a petition that wanted six ministers and eight senior IAS officers to be brought under the purview of the CBI probe into the assets case of YS Jaganmohan Reddy. The petition was filed by advocate Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy of Nellore, who urged the court to treat is as a complaint under section 156 (3) of the CrPC and order investigation against the ministers and officers.After initially hearing the petitioner's version, the judge posted the case to Thursday for deciding the maintainability of the petition.
The petitioner wanted the court to order investigation against ministers J Geetha Reddy, Dharmana Prasada Rao, Sabitha Indra Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Kanna Lakshminarayana and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana. He also wanted the court to order probe sgainst IAS officers Manmohan Singh, Y Srilakshmi, M Samuel, Aditya Nath Das, SV Prasad, K Ratna Prabha, C V S K Sarma and B Sam Bob.
According to the petitioner, in the Jagan assets case, the CBI has listed certain GOs in the FIR to substantiate its case. It was the contention of the original complainant P Shankar Rao, a minister in the Kiran cabinet, before the A P High Court that several private industrialists and individuals benefited through allotments of land, grant of licences and mining leases etc in the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy's regime and that these beneficiaries in turn invested huge amounts in the companies floated by Jagan in a quid quo pro arrangement. The HC too, in its order, wanted the CBI to look at the case from this angle.
However, according to the petitioner, the CBI, which made Jagan and his auditor Vijay Sai Reddy as accused number one and two respectively, did not bring under its purview any of the secretaries and the ministers of the departments concerned who issued such GOs. Without bringing the authors and brains behind such GOs, the CBI is reportedly going after the abettors of such actions, the petitioner said. While abettors too should be booked, it is the primary offenders that should be brought to book first, he said.
When the judge enquired as to whether the court has the purview to look into such issues, the petitioner said that the CBI court has the necessary powers. The judge then posted the case to Thursday for first deciding the issue of maintainability of the petition.
The petitioner has listed several GOs that allegedly benefited companies like Penna Cements, Vanpic project, Bharati Cements, Mantri Developers, Dalmia Cements, Ramky, ERES projects, Pioneer Infrastructure, Brahmani Steels etc and wanted both the ministers and the secretaries of the respective departments who authored and supported such GOs at the relevant point of time to be brought under the CBI scanner now.