Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy and Puneet Dalmia of the Dalmia Cements are among the 13 accused in the fifth charge sheet filed by the CBI in the disproportionate asset case of Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy here on Monday .
Sabita is the third member of the erstwhile YSR cabinet and Puneet Dalmia is the fifth Industrialist to be named accused in the Jagan case which has been rocking the state politics since August 2011 .
In the 62-page charge sheet filed before the special court, the CBI slapped sections 120-B, 420 , 409 of IPC and sections 9,12,13 of the PC act on the accused. The CBI has listed 53 documents and also 46 witnesses in the charge sheet. Sabita Reddy has been hauled her role as Mines Minister in the YSR cabinet during 2004-2009.
While minister Mopidevi Venkataramana was arrested and jailed by the CBI in the same case , the then revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao is still at large though he was made accused no-7 in the charge sheet no-3 filed last November .
In Prasada Rao’s case, though the cabinet passed a resolution rejecting CBI plea to prosecute him, the governor had refused to endorse it.
Kadapa MP and YSRC party president Jaganmohan Reddy has been in jail since May 27, 2012, in connection with the case.
In all the charge sheets the CBI held that Jaganmohan Reddy had compelled the industrialists and individuals to invest in his companies as a quid pro quo for the benefits given to them by his father’s government .
The CBI said that Sabita Indra Reddy had allocated lands to cement companies including Dalmia cements.
Puneet Dalmia has been named as accused- third on the charge that he invested Rs 95 crore in Bharati cement belonging to the Jagan-owned group, which he is accused of doing as a quid pro quo for the limestone leases given to the company by the YSR regime.
The accused mentioned in the CBI chargesheet are in the following order:
A1 - Jagan, A2 – Vijaya Sai Reddy, A3 – Dalmia Cements MD Punit Dalmia, A4 – Sabita Indra Reddy, A5 – Sri Lakshmi, A6 – Raja Gopal, A7 – Eswar Cements MD Sajjala Diwakar Reddy, A8 – Dalmia Cements Senior Executive Sanjay N Mishra, A9 – Dalmia Cements Senior Manager Nil Dhamal Bheri and A10 – Dalmia Manager Jaidip Basu.
Speculations are rife in political circles that Sabita Indra Reddy would resign after the naming in the chargesheet. She may rush to the chief minister’s camp, as the opposition starts to demand her resignation.
The Supreme Court has already issued notices to Sabita Indra Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Geeta Reddy and Kanna Lakshmi Narayana in connection with the controversial GOs issued during YSR’s tenure as chief minister.
Now the CBI has named Sabita an accused, charging her of liberally allotting lands to cement companies which in turn invested in Jagan’s companies.