By IANS,
Hyderabad : A special court here Wednesday remanded Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s aide, Vijay Sai Reddy, in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till Jan 9 in the case of Jagan’s illegal assets.
The CBI, which arrested Vijay Sai Reddy Monday, sought his custody for 15 days. The CBI told the court that it needed to gather information from him as he was the brain behind the floating of bogus companies and mobilizing investments into Jagati Publications Private Limited (JPPL) and other companies promoted and owned by Jagan, as the parliament member from Kadapa is popularly known.
Opposing the CBI plea, Vijay Sai Reddy’s counsel Sushil Kumar wondered what more did the investigating agency want to find out when it has already questioned him for over 200 hours for the last five months.
Sushil Kumar questioned the CBI booking a case against his client under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code when he is no longer a public servant.
In the end, the special court judge granted the CBI custody of Vijay Sai only for five days.
It also directed the CBI to question Vijay Sai only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. everyday in the presence of his lawyers.
The court also asked the CBI to send back Vijay Sai to Chanchalguda Central Jail at the end of questioning every day.
Jaganmohan Reddy is the son of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The young businessman-politician also runs Telugu daily ‘Sakshi’ and a news channel by the same name.
Vijay Sai, an auditor and financial advisor of Jagan, is a former director of the Oriental Bank of Commerce. He is also the vice-president of the Jagati Publications.
The CBI took up investigations in Jagan’s case in August on a direction of the Andhra Pradesh High Court following petitions from a state minister and some leaders of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The CBI has registered a case against Jagan for conspiring with his father and then chief minister Rajasekhara Reddy to roll out public assets in the form of mining licenses, special economic zones, ports, real estate permissions to unscrupulous investors who pumped in money into his companies on a quid-pro-quo basis.