HC RESERVES ORDER ON SRINIVAS PLEA

IN

Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a petition by India Cements Chairman N. Srinivasan seeking exemption of his personal appearance before the Special CBI Court in the city in the illegal investments case of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The Special CBI Court which was designated as a special court under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was currently hearing the cases of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Jagan and others, including Srinivasan under the PMLA Act.

The ED filed the chargesheet against Srinivasan alleging that he had invested in companies of Jagan violating provisions of the PMLA Act.

Senior counsel for petitioner T. Niranjan Reddy submitted that the ED had registered the case based on the investigation of the CBI in illegal investments case and the High Court had quashed the case of the CBI against the petitioner earlier.

The petitioner was in his advanced age and would be represented by an advocate through a special vakalat and this relief could be granted in view of the fact that the High Court had already struck down the charges of the CBI in the case. He told the court that it had already permitted India Cements, which was also shown as an accused entity in the case, to have an authorised representative.

The bench said a magistrate had power to exempt the appearance of the accused, and asked the senior counsel whether a designated ED court which is a sessions’ court could grant such relief to an accused.