HYDERABAD: Even as Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is busy figuring out what his next move should be, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun investigation into his wealth following a direction to this effect by the High Court on July 12. CBI deputy inspector-general VV Lakshminarayana will be supervising the investigation. Since the High Court had only sought a preliminary inquiry into the case, CBI officials are collecting the petitions, affidavits and annexures filed in the High Court. “The investigation will be carried under my supervision,” Lakshminarayana told ENS, adding: “It will be in the nature of establishing whether there is a prima facie evidence that Jagan Mohan Reddy had amassed wealth through dubious methods.” The direction for a preliminary inquiry 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. The court wanted the CBI to submit a report within two weeks. The direction was given based on a letter written by minister P Shankar Rao in October last year (he was MLA then) which was treated as a PIL (public interest litigation). The TDP filed a separate petition in March this year on more or less the same grounds and the court has clubbed all the petitions.Meanwhile, Jagan Mohan Reddy was closeted with his confidants and tried to figure out what his next course of action should be. His loyalists are learnt to have advised him against going in appeal to the Supreme Court since, in the event of the apex court upholding the High Court’s order, he would have to face the criticism that he did amass opulence taking advantage of the office of the chief minister which his late father YS Rajasekhara Reddy had held, and that he was trying to evade probe now.“We have not yet taken any decision. Since the direction of the court is only for conducting a preliminary inquiry, there is no need to get worked up. In fact, the direction of the High Court might be politically advantageous to our leader,” one leader who is close to Jagan Mohan Reddy said. Jagan Mohan Reddy is also eliciting the opinions of legal experts whether there is any possibility of getting a stay from the Supreme Court. If the chances are slim, then he may leave it at that and cooperate with CBI officials, according to the leader.The YSR Congress president is also contemplating using the same strategy that the Congress had used against him making Shankar Rao file a petition in the court. He is examining whether he will be able to get a favourable direction from the court if he asks his men to file petitions in the High Court on the possibility of someone being behind the death of his father in the helicopter crash.“There are several doubts over the manner in which YSR had died. The CBI had only said that his death was due to the chopper crash. It had not gone into why there was a delay in getting a new chopper or not informing him that the new chopper would be ready within one and a half hours,” the leader said, but he made it clear that these proposals were only at a discussion stage and that no decision was taken on them.
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