Jagan case: Indu group chairman & a minister now face CBI heat

HYDERABAD: Investigators have added a businessman and a state minister to its list of accused in the corruption case involving YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of Andhra Pradesh’s late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

The CBI filed chargesheets against two Indu group companies and named its chairman Indukuri Syam Prasad Reddy and the state heavy industries minister, J Geeta Reddy, as accused.

The names of two more ministers, P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Dharmana Prasad Rao, who resigned from the cabinet after being accused in earlier chargesheets, also figured in the latest one. Bureaucrats BP Acharya, M Samuel and K Ratna Prabha have already been named as accused in the case. Jagan, who represents Kadapa Lok Sabha, broke away from the Congress to form his own political outfit YSR Congress soon after his father died in a helicopter crash in 2009. He was arrested in May last year.

Though the CBI has booked the promoters of Matrix Laboratories, Aurobindo Pharma, Ramky Group, Hetero Drugs, Dalmia Cements, India Cements, Bharati Cements and Penna Cements, it has arrested only Matrix founder Nimmagadda Prasad so far. Among the four ministers accused, only Mopidevi Venkata Ramana has been arrested.

The CBI has accused the Indu group companies of receiving favours from the YSR-led state government in the form of allotment of large tracts of land and of investing huge amounts in various businesses of Jagan in return. The two Indu group companies — Indu Projects and Lepakshi Knowledge Hub — were charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts and criminal misconduct.