After three days of intense interrogation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested YSR Congress President and Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in a disproportionate assets case.
Anticipating violent protests by YSR Congress activists and supporters of Jagan (as the young leader is popularly known), the Andhra Pradesh Police went on high alert across the state.
The police have clamped Section 144, which prohibits gathering of five or more persons, across all the major towns and cities. The authorities have also forced business establishments to pull down shutters and asked the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation to curtail bus services.
Earlier in the day, Jagan arrived at the Dilkusha guest house in Hyderabad with his financial advisor V Vijay Sai Reddy, who is now on bail in the same case, by 10:30 am. CBI had questioned him for seven hours each on Friday and Saturday in the guest house, which was handed over to the investigating agency for facilitating probes into three high-profile cases, including the asset case against Jagan and his supporters.
Jagan’s arrest, under sections 120B, 420, 409 and 477A of the penal code, was confirmed when his mother, Vijayalakshmi, and other family members, including his sister, Sharmila, and brother-in-law, Anil Kumar, drove to the guest house to meet him.
YSR Congress spokesperson B Govardhan and legislative council member Prabhakar Rao told reporters their party president was “unjustly arrested by CBI at the Dilkusha guest house”. He will stay at the guest house tonight and will be produced before a court tomorrow. Jagan is accused of amassing huge wealth after his father, the late Congress leader Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, became chief minister in 2004.
Jagan was arrested a day before he was scheduled to appear in the court with regard to the first of the three chargesheets filed so far by the investigating agency naming him as the prime accused.
The court on May 8 issued notices to Jagan and 12 others to appear on May 28.
The high court had earlier rejected his anticipatory bail application, following which, speculation about his arrest was growing.
CBI had already arrested industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad (popularly known as Matrix Prasad), bureaucrat Brahmananda Reddy, and state excise minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, the latter for his alleged role in doling out government favours to companies that invested in Jagan’s businesses.
