Relief for YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as court refuses to cancel bail

HYDERABAD: A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Friday dismissed the plea of the premier investigating agency to cancel bail granted to YSR Congress party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy , providing relief to the Andhra Pradesh opposition party.

The CBI had last month moved the special court seeking to cancel the bail granted to Reddy after nearly three-and-a-half years, accusing him of influencing witnesses in the disproportionate assets case against him.

The agency accused Reddy of airing through his electronic media channels certain staged interviews by the witnesses, who allegedly attempted to shield the accused in the disproportionate assets case. The agency also opposed the application filed by Reddy to travel overseas with his family.

Reddy, however, said he had no role in the interviews aired on Sakshi TV and that those interviews were by journalists as part of their professional duties.

On Friday , the court dismissed the plea of the investigating agency on both cancelling the bail and rejecting Jagan's overseas journey .

Reddy was arrested in May 2012 for allegedly amassing huge wealth through illegal means of misusing the office of his later father YS Rajasekhara Reddy when he was chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh for six years till September 2009.

He has been out on bail since September 2013, after spending 16 months in jail, and had emerged the opposition legislature party leader in truncated Andhra Pradesh during May 2014 elections. He had obtained bail at a time when the political parties in the undivided Andhra Pradesh saw a vertical split on regional lines ahead of bifurcation of the state in June 2014, when Telangana was carved out.

The ruling Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had accused the then ruling Congress government of colluding with the YSR Congress to arrange the bail for Reddy.

A senior CBI officer, who did not want to be named, said the agency will now move the high court with similar plea of seeking to cancel the bail granted to Reddy.

Speaking to journalists, senior YSR Congress leader Bhumana Karunakara Reddy said the disproportionate assets case against the party president was a conspiracy of the Congress and the TDP.“There was no proof that our leader had ever entered the secretariat while YS Rajasekhara Reddy was chief minister but still they foisted false cases and CBI enquiry was ordered,“ he said.