HC orders probe into Naidu assets

A division bench of the High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice Ghulam Mohammed and Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao, directed the CBI,  Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to submit the report in three months in a sealed cover.

The court passed the order on a writ petition filed by Y S Vijayamma, wife of late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, in which she alleged that Naidu with the help of media group owner  Ramoji Rao defrauded the state ex-chequer and amassed huge wealth. Vijayamma had alleged that the TDP president, during his tenure between 1995 and 2004, amassed wealth by misusing power using Ramoji Rao as a conduit.

The bench directed the investigating agencies to submit reports in three months so that the court could further consider the matter.

The court directed the authorities to take into consideration the material papers supplied by the petitioner that run into 2,000 papers. Another division bench had recently directed a criminal probe against YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy based on the material filed by the Telugu Desam leaders and minister P Shankar Rao.

The CBI probe on Naidu has come as a sequel to the ongoing investigation into the case of  amassing of wealth by  Jagan and the allegations of using his father’s office as chief minister to get quid pro quo investments into his media companies in exchange for land grants  by the Y S Reddy government.

Chandrababu Naidu, who is on a padayatra  in Vizianagaram district as part of Rythu Poru Bata, described the development as another attempt to divert public attention from the prevailing corruption in the Congress-led state government  and the UPA government.

Naidu said though several cases had been hoisted against him and house committees were set to probe, they could not find any wrong doing. The  probe has been ordered without giving him any notice and an opportunity to defend himself in the public interest litigation filed with a “politically malicious intent to defame” him.

The CBI, which is handling several crucial cases in the state,  has sought a few more designated courts and extra personnel to handle all the cases in order. The probe in Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, EMAAR-MGF and  Satyam Ramalainga Raju cases have already reached significant levels. The agency is likely to file FIR in the Reddy case in a few weeks.

State Mining Corporation former MD Rajagopal, who was arrested in connection with the Obulapuram mines case on Sunday, has been sent to seven-day (till November 21)  CBI custody. Rajagopal will be interrogated in the presence of advocates only during the stipulated hours.