Y. Srilakshmi hits out at CBI in HC
IAS officer Y. Srilakshmi, who is one of the accused in Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s quid pro quo cases, submitted to the Telangana High Court that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had no authority to file additional or supplementary chargesheets on its own, without being ordered by the court.
Her counsel, Raghavacharyulu, on Friday, submitted arguments before the court, in a petition filed by Srilakshmi urging to set aside the case registered against her related to mining license allotment to Penna Cements by the then government of Andhra Pradesh.
He argued that the CBI had started a probe into the quid pro quo cases on the directions of the High Court. However, it filed a chargesheet only in the Penna Cements issue in 2012 and it had also filed a memo that the investigation was complete.
But, in 2016 the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet related to this issue by including seven more persons as accused. One of the seven was Srilakshmi. “How could and on what basis the CBI on its own conducts further probe and files the supplementary charge-sheet,” counsel asked. Further arguments will be heard on Monday.
Srilakshmi was named as accused in the additional chargesheet filed by the CBI in 2016 in Penna Cements case, which is one among the eleven cases registered related to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s quid pro quo cases. She is the accused number 15.
In the additional chargesheet, the CBI alleged that Srilakshmi, then secretary of the erstwhile AP mines and industries department when Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was Chief Minister, was part of the criminal conspiracy in allotting mining licenses to Penna Cements, which later invested in the Jagan Mohan Reddy’s companies.
It was alleged that despite holding public office as the secretary of the mining department, she had allowed to give 304 hectares of land for limestone mining to the Penna Cements, against the rules and procedures. At the same time, she did not consider the application made by Ultra Tech Cement, to grant the mining lease, it was alleged.