NIA and SIT spar over Jagan attack case details

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which has recently taken over the YS Jaganmohan Reddy attack case from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Andhra Pradesh government will have to wait for case details till the NIA special court in Vijayawada hears its petition on Jan 23. The Court on Friday also remanded the accused Janupalli Srinivasa Rao till 25 and sent him to Rajahmundry central prison.
 
The NIA which has the accused in its custody till Friday has several rounds of questioning of the accused that attacked Jaganmohan Reddy with a knife on 25 October at the VIP lounge of Visakhapatnam airport.
 
“The NIA has violated the directions of the court by grilling my client for more than 30 hours. We also urged the court to shift Srinivasa Rao to any other court as there is a threat to his life here in Vijayawada,” Matta Jayaprakash, counsel for Rao said. He also said that Srinivasa Rao wants to speak to media and tell his side of the story. “However the honourable court refused the request,” Jayaprakash said.
 
Meanwhile, the NIA which has questioned Rao here told the court that the SIT has so far has not submitted the material evidence of the case. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh police also moved court urging to declare the Union Home Ministry’s order handing over the case to NIA. They believe that the case is not of interstate or international issue to be dealt with the NIA.
 
Sources say that the NIA after the preliminary round of investigation has felt that the case has nothing special to offer as the accused has been repeatedly saying that he wanted to gain fame and also get sympathy for his favourite leader by attacking him. The accused also says that the 30 page notes that he wrote explaining how his favourite leader should rule the state is missing and alleged that the AP police have snatched it from him and are refusing to return the same.