Jagan appears before court

Hyderabad: For the first time after he took over as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday appeared before a CBI special court in the city in an illegal investments case. He had been been seeking exemptions from personal appearance every Friday till now. He landed at the Begumpet airport in a special aircraft from Vijayawada and reached the court at Nampally.

For the first time after he took over as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday appeared before a CBI special court in Hyderabad in an illegal investments case. He had been been seeking exemptions from personal appearance every Friday till now.

He landed at the Begumpet airport in a special aircraft from Vijayawada and reached the court at Nampally amid tight security. The special court had last week taken exception to the YSRC chief seeking repeated exemptions and directed him and Accused No. 2 V. Vijaya Sai Reddy to appear in person. On Friday, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy sat in a chair which was arranged for him close to the judge’s bench.

Mr Vijaya Sai Reddy, former minister Dharmana Prasad Rao, IAS officer Srilakshmi, industrialist Shyamprasad Reddy, retired IAS officer Samuel, Telangana state education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and other accused appeared before the court.

The judge first took up the discharge petitions moved by Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy and other accused. Counsel for the AP Chief Minister urged the court to consider all the 11 petitions as one and take up the hearing.

Counsel submitted that in one case, the CBI has filed 11 chargesheets and all were connected to one alleged offence. When the judge posted the discharge petitions to January 24, the CM’s counsel urged the court to grant exemption from personal appearance on the ground that his client was holding a constitutional post and needed to attend important programmes. He requested the court to allow one of the accused to appear on behalf his client. The judge the exemption petition also to January 24.

Later, the judge took cognisance of the additional chargesheet filed by the CBI and the ED in the case of land allotments to Penna Cements and issued summons to Ms Sabitha Indra Reddy, Mr Dharmana Prasad Rao, Ms Srilakshmi and the management of Penna Cements.

Indu Projects promoter Shyam Prasad Reddy and India Cements promoter N. Srinivasan and other accused in the case also appeared before the court.