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Jagan Reddy rewarding co-accused, cancel his bail: Rebel YSR Cong MP to court
YSR Congress MP K Raghurama Krishnam Raju, who has taken on Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in court, was accused of sedition weeks after he filed his application for revoking the chief minister’s bail request.
HYDERABAD: Rebel parliamentarian of YSR Congress K Raghurama Krishnam Raju on Monday told a special CBI court in Hyderabad that Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was granting undue favours to the co-accused and influencing witnesses in his alleged disproportionate assets cases.
Raju, the YSR Congress MP from West Godavari district’s Narasapuram, petitioned the Hyderabad court designated for cases probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation on April 29 to cancel Jagan Mohan Reddy’s bail, complaining that he was influencing witnesses. Jagan Reddy rebutted this charge on June 1. Raju’s affidavit on Monday was a rejoinder to the chief minister’s 98-page rebuttal.
The CBI hasn’t expressed a view on Raju’s demand and left it to the judge to take a call.
In Monday’s affidavit, K Raghurama Krishnam Raju named several leaders and officials who were Jagan Mohan Reddy’s co-accused in the disproportionate assets cases and were granted favours after the YSR Congress chief became the chief minister in May 2019.
For example, Raju’s affidavit pointed out that senior YSRC leader Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, a co- accused named in one of the 11 charge-sheets filed the CBI, was appointed advisor to the state government with powers to carry out reviews and convene meetings including those requiring the presence of police officers.
Party leader, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, also a co-accused was first appointed as a cabinet minister and later elevated as a Rajya Sabha member. Another one, YV Subba Reddy was appointed chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board.
Raju’s affidavit also cited Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to send a delegation of party MPs to the minister of external affairs to seek the release of Nimmagadda Prasad, another co-accused, who was detained in Serbia as an instance of how he had helped co-accused in the case. Prasad was brought back to India in March 2020.
Raju said the Jagan government issued an order on April 10, 2021, that will make the chief minister the reviewing authority of annual appraisal reports of All India Service officers. “This particular order clearly fortifies the contention that the chief minister is inducing and indirectly threatening senior officers who were witnesses in a number of cases against him. This amounts to a violation of conditions of his bail,” he said. Raju said the chief secretary was earlier the reviewing authority for All India Service officers.
“There is no end to the list of undue favours granted by the chief minister to the co-accused in his cases and place them in a position of dominance with a view to put fear psychosis in the minds of witnesses,” Raju said.
Raju said the chief minister had already forced the state police to withdraw all the crimes registered against him for various offences, while he was the opposition leader.
