High Court puts Jagan empire under CBI scanner

HYDERABAD: In a blow to MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his fledgling party, the YSR Congress, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday ordered a preliminary probe by the CBI into the assets owned by him and the companies he has floated. The direction was given by a division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice Nisar Ahmed Kakru and Justice Vilas Afzalpurkar, while dealing with a batch of writ petitions seeking a CBI inquiry into the manner in which Jagan, son of late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, acquired a fortune within a few years.The court wanted the probe to be carried out either by the CBI director or an official chosen by him and the report submitted within two weeks in a sealed cover. It also directed all government departments and respondents (Jagan and others named in the petitions) to cooperate with the inquiry while stating that it would provide material evidence already furnished to it to the investigating agency.The order by the bench came after prolonged arguments earlier in the day for and against a probe by the CBI but the bench finally preferred an inquiry. The court had on Monday ordered a similar probe into the “Emaar” scandal in which the stake of a government-owned corporation was whittled down by the private developer who was allotted a huge chunk of prime land in the state capital for construction of villas and a golf course among other things. The high court direction in regard to Jagan came on a letter written by Minister Dr P Shankar Rao in October last year which was treated as a PIL and subsequent petitions moved by TDP leader K Yerran Naidu and others.