CBI charge sheets Jagan, 12 others in illegal assets case

Hyderabad, March 31 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday filed a charge sheet against YSR Congress party leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and 12 others in an illegal assets case.

In its charge sheet in a special CBI court, the investigating agency has charged Jaganmohan Reddy of conspiring with his father and then Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and accepting bribe in the form of investments into his companies.

The accused have been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and criminal breach of trust, the CBI sources said.

While Jaganmohan Reddy, an MP, is the number one accused, his aide Vijay Sai Reddy, who was arrested by the CBI on Jan 2, is the second accused.

Vijay Sai, the vice-president of Jagati Publications Private Limited (JPPL) and auditor of other companies owned by Jagan, is the only person arrested so far in the case registered by CBI in August last year.

The MP from Kadapa, who quit Congress party and floated YSR Congress in 2010, has not yet been arrested.

The accused are likely to be arrested once the court takes cognizance of the charge sheet and summons.

The CBI sleuths brought the 68-page charge sheet and 263 supporting documents to the court in two trunks. It examined 68 witnesses in the case.

The other accused include Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official B.P. Acharya, who is already in jail in the Emaar-APIIC case.

Charges under sections 120, 120 B, 420, 409, 468 of Indian Penal Code and sections 13 (1) and 13 (2) Prevention of Corruption Act have been filed against the accused.

The accused include two companies of Jagan and three other companies, which were allegedly favoured by the YSR government for investing into Jagan's firms in a quid pro quo arrangement. The other individuals named in the charge sheet are executives of these companies and two public servants.

The other accused are Aurobindo Pharma, Hetero Drugs, Trident Life Sciences, Hetero managing director Srinivas Reddy, Nityanand Reddy, Sharat Chandra Reddy, Acharya, Vijayalakshmi Prasad, Chandra Mouli, Jagati Publications and Janani rpt Janani Infrastructure.

Acharya, as then vice chairman and managing director of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), and Vijayalakshmi Prasad as the zonal manager had played a key role in allocating prime lands to certain companies.

Though the CBI had filed an FIR against Jagan and 73 others in August last year following the probe ordered by Andhra Pradesh High Court, the charge sheet has named only 13 organisations and individuals.

Meanwhile, Jagan and Vijay Sai Reddy's counsel Ashok Reddy told reporters that there are no allegations under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Jagan and that he has only been charged under two sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The only allegation against Jagan is that he aided his father, he said.

According to CBI, Jagan conspired with his father to roll out public assets in the form of mining licenses, lands, special economic zones, ports, and real estate permissions to unscrupulous investors who pumped in money into his companies.

YSR, as Rajasekhara Reddy was popularly known, was chief minister from 2004 to Sep 2, 2009 when he died in a helicopter crash.

The high court had ordered CBI probe against Jagan on petitions filed by ruling Congress party legislator Shankar Rao and leaders of opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Over the last eight months, the CBI raided residences and offices of Jagan, the companies owned by him and those which were benefited during his father's rule.