The special CBI court on Friday refused to grant bail to Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has been in judicial custody in the alleged quid-pro-quo investments case following his arrest on May 27, while rejecting the argument that the arrest was made only to keep him away from campaigning in the ensuing by-elections.
The principal judge, A Pulliah, while rejecting the bail petition filed on behalf of Jagan, as the Kadapa MP is popularly known, maintained that the court cannot grant relief to the accused when the investigation is still on.
Opposing the bail petition, CBI counsel argued that the accused was capable of influencing the witnesses and tamper with the evidences available in the case if he was granted bail. The judge finally accepted the contention of the defense lawyers. The orders came three days after the Jagan's lawyers approached the court for bail to their clients.
The orders are yet to be pronounced on the petitions filed in the AP High Court terming the arrest of Jagan itself as illegal and challenging his judicial custody. The high court also completed the hearing on the custody petition filed by the CBI seeking the custody of Jagan . The CBI court on May 28 rejected the petition for police custody of Jagan and sent him to a 14-day judicial remand.
Meanwhile, the AP High Court had suspended an additional judge working in one of the newly-constituted CBI courts on a complaint made against him by th CBI. The judge allegedly took bribe for granting bail to former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. He is in jail in connection with the illegal iron ore mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company owned by him.
AP govt terminates Gali’s steel project
The Andhra Pradesh government has terminated the memorandum of understanding (MoU) entered in 2007 with Brahmani Industries Limited, promoted by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, for failing to complete the proposed integrated steel project in Kadapa district.
All the incentives offered for the project have also been cancelled through a separate order recently.
Giving reasons for the termination of the MoU in its orders issued yesterday, the industries and commerce department stated that the company had failed to complete the project. The first phase of two-million tonne capacity was to be completed in 2009, even after a lapse of one-and-a-half year.
The department has also contradicted with the company’s claim of having already been invested about Rs 1,350 crore stating that the actual value of the work so far done at the project site was only about Rs 170.95 crore.
Janardhan Reddy had come forward to set up the project with an ultimate capacity of 10 million tonne by 2017 for which his company was given 10,760 acre of land, besides allocating about 2 TMC of water from a nearby reservoir along with other policy incentives.
The then government led by YS Rajasekhara Reddy had also allotted iron ore mines to Obulapuram Mining Company, owned by Janardhan Reddy for captive use in the light of the proposed project, which subsequently lead to the ongoing CBI investigation against the former minister.
However, the government is yet to initiate action in connection with the land that had been alienated to the company, which in turn took a Rs 350-crore loan by pledging the same with a private bank, according to the government.
