Vijayamma files PIL in AP High Court.
Under investigation on several counts including illegal amassment of wealth, former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy's family has struck back at TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, their arch political rival, by filing a public interest litigation (PIL) in the AP High Court seeking a CBI probe into his assets and acts committed when he was in power.
YSR’s widow Vijayamma filed a 109-page writ petition on Monday alleging that Naidu had amassed wealth, disproportionate to his known sources of income by misusing his power right from the days as minister in his father-in-law’s Cabinet to his nine-year tenure as chief minister of the state. The PIL listed out dozens of instances cited in support of the alleged quid-pro-quo favours to companies, benami land transactions, allotment of projects and money laundering levelled against Naidu and his family members.
Except for the change in the names of the principal respondent and other alleged beneficiaries and the related instances, the allegations levelled against Naidu by the petitioner have been as extensive and similar to that made against the YSR family by TDP leader and former Union minister Y Yerran Naidu along with a state minister based on which the high court had ordered a full probe by the CBI.
The petitioner named Naidu, his wife Bhuvaneshwari and son Lokesh as respondents along with media baron Ch Ramoji Rao among a list of 20 respondents that included Government of India, Government of Andhra Pradesh, CBI, Enforcement Directorate, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and a few businessmen.
Though Vijayamma also named Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Reliance Industries as alleged beneficiaries of alleged quid pro quo arrangement made with Naidu as chief minister, their names however did not figured in the list of respondents.
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Among several accusations of criminal conspiracy and illegal money transactions, the petitioner termed Heritage Foods and Heritage Infrastructure Limited, both were promoted by Naidu's family, as primarily responsible for facilitating the wrong doings including money laundering and flow of foreign funds.
The TDP leaders dismissed the PIL as an act of vendetta and said Naidu had already steered cleared of such allegations in the inquiries ordered by YSR himself.
The high court is expected to take a view on the writ petition in a day or two.