HYDERABAD: In a setback to the YSR Congress president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ahead of by-elections, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Saturday sent him to the CBI custody for further questioning in its probe into his alleged disproportionate assets.
This comes a day after the CBI court dismissing his petition for interim bail to campaign for the by-elections for 18 Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituencies scheduled for 12 June.
Though the CBI had sought custody for 10 days, Justice B. Chandra Kumar of AP High Court ordered custody for only five days from Sunday.
Jagan, the Kadapa MP and son of late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash in September 2009, was arrested by the investigating agency on 27 May and produced before the CBI court on 28 May.
Though the CBI sought immediate custody of Jagan for further questioning, the CBI court refused its plea and sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. He is now lodged in Chanchalguda Central Jail.
The CBI, which is probing into the case on the directives of the AP High Court in August last year, accused Jagan of amassing huge assets through illegal means by using influence of his father, then chief minister. Jagan, who rebelled against the ruling Congress party to float his own political outfit YSR Congress after his father's death, was accused of weaving a web of business connections and making many prominent business houses and industrialists to invest in his business for favours doled out by his father's government.
Challenging his arrest, Jagan moved the High Court with a quash petition. CBI also moved the High Court seeking his custody for further interrogation to crack the case. While Jagan is the prime accused, the CBI accused 18 individuals and entities in three charge sheets filed so far and arrested five persons. The arrested include businessman Nimmagadda Prasad, bureaucrat Brahmananda Reddy, former minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and auditor of YSR family businesses V. Vijai Sai Reddy.
The CBI was directed to question Jagan from 10.30am to 5pm for five days in the presence of two advoca
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