YSR party outs CBI director’s phone list

YSR Congress MLAs protest in the Assembly premises on Thursday.

YSR Congress MLAs on Thursday demanded a probe by a Supreme Court judge into an alleged “conspiracy” behind the arrest of their leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Accusing CBI joint director V.V. Laxminarayana of leaking information and planting stories in one section of the media before affecting the Kadapa MP’s arrest, YSR Congress MLAs staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue on the Assembly premises. They released a list of calls made by Mr Laxminarayana to various reporters and also to one Vasireddy Chandrabala, said to be a former techie of Hyderabad.

YSR Congress leaders demanded why the CBI joint director called up media personnel in clear violation of the CBI manual. They also wanted to know who Ms Vasireddy Chandrabala was and why she had called him repeatedly. They alleged that the CBI joint director did not act fairly and had conspired with some parties with vested interests and had arrested Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy a few hours before attending court.


YSR party smells a rat in jail blackout:


There was a 12-hour blac-kout on Thursday at the Chanchalguda Central Prison where several high-profile undertrials including Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and former minister Mopidevi Venkatramana are lodged. As news of the blackout spread, supporters of the YSR Congress chief started a rumour that it was a conspiracy to eliminate Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy. The power cut was rep-orted in the early hours of Thursday at the prison. Jail officials said one of the phases in the new prison block had developed glitches but power was restored by pulling a line from the old prison block which is empty.

Power problem resolved, says jail in-charge:


In-charge superintendent of Chanchalguda prison, Venkateshwar Reddy said, “We immediately addressed the problem by disconnecting the third phase from the old prison block and connecting it to the new prison block which holds all the inmates. The electricity department rectified the problem by Thursday evening. “There was no issue about the security of the inmates, including the special prisoners, being compromised. The charges are baseless.” Mr Jagan’s wife Bharathi Reddy had filed a petition in the HC seeking security for her husband in jail but the authorities had submitted a report stating that security was given to special category prisoners as per norms.

Jagan served ED notice in prison

The Enforcement Directorate issued a notice to Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday for recording his statement in Chanchalguda prison after his counsel refused to accept the same.

The ED had earlier filed a plea in the Special Court for CBI cases to record Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy’s statement in jail regarding his illegal investments case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The court had directed the ED to serve the notice on the YSR Congress chief’s counsel Ashok Reddy but he refused to accept the same. Following this, the court asked the ED to serve the notice on the Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy himself at Chanchalguda prison and the ED’s counsel served the notice later in the day.

The ED had earlier filed a plea seeking to record the MP’s statement as former director and chairman of M/s Jagathi Publications. The firm had been named Accused No. 12 in the first chargesheet filed by the CBI in the case. The court had posted the matter for further hearing to June 25.

Jagan fear factor: Congress may seek solace in TRS company

HYDERABAD: Concerned over the political threat from Jaganmohan Reddy, the Congress high command is believed to be considering going forward on an issue that they have been stonewalling till now - the Telangana impasse.

Following the rout of the Congress in the Seemandhra region and the narrow victory margin for the TRS in Parkal in the recent assembly bypolls, the grand old party is dropping hints that it wants more than an alliance with the latter. Disclosing this to TOI, highly-places sources said a positive decision on the Telangana front is the only one with which the Congress can hope to remain a political force in the state before the 2014 elections. "The strategy is to regain the hold in the Telangana region by granting the separate state on the condition that the TRS should merge with the Congress. The party can then concentrate on rebuilding itself in the Seemandhra region where the threat from Jagan is formidable, as the recent bypolls showed," said the sources. But TRS, though seeking Telangana, knows the dilemma of the collapsing Congress in the state.

According to the sources, the Congress is upbeat on the issue of going forward on Telangana and the TRS merger. While such a formula is more in its interest, Congress leaders are claiming that it is the TRS that has sent the feelers. "The TRS has come forward with a proposal of merger. I have definite information from the Congress high command about the merger proposal," minor irrigation minister and Seemandhra leader T G Venkatesh told TOI.

Venkatesh, who had a series of meetings in New Delhi during the last two days with senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vayalar Ravi and S Jaipal Reddy, said Telangana state was round the corner. "The Centre is inching towards Telangana and this is the outcome of the TRS merger proposal," he said.

According to him, except the Congress, all the other political parties are agreed on Telangana. Venkatesh, who has been raising the issue of the rights of Rayalaseema districts since 2000, has the apprehension of a midnight T-announcement as was done on December 6, 2009, by home minister P Chidambaram. "The Rayalaseema people should be informed of the decision well in advance," he said.

Party scion K T Rama Rao said: "Telangana has to happen and certainly will become a reality in the run up to the 2014 elections. This is our understanding." TRS senior leader T Harish Rao denied that the party has been in touch with the Congress leadership," he said. But in the same breath, Harish Rao added: "The political situation in the state has evolved to a level that the Congress can no longer dither on Telangana. Telangana should be created if Congress were to survive in Andhra Pradesh," Harish told TOI from Warangal.

Jagan case: CBI grills BCCI chief N Srinivasan for 7 hrs

HYDERABAD:

The CBI on Monday sought to know from N Srinivasan, MD of The India Cements Ltd, the logic behind his decision to invest Rs 90 crore in rival cement company Bharati Cements when the latter was in the hands of Jaganmohan Reddy.

Srinivasan, who also happens to be the chairman of the BCCI and owner of IPL team Chennai Super Kings, was summoned by the probe agency as part of its ongoing investigation into the Jagan assets case and was questioned for more than seven hours at the CBI's makeshift office at Dilkusha Guest House on Raj Bhavan Road. The probe agency sought to know certain details about how India Cements managed to secure huge additional water allocations for its plants in Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts from the YSR regime. The CBI's charge is that the YSR regime allotted water from Kagna and Krishna rivers for these two plants which crossed the quota allotted to Andhra Pradesh under the Bachawat award. In return for the water allocations, India Cements invested Rs 135 crore in Jagan's companies, the CBI alleged.

Responding to the CBI query about why he invested in another cement company, Srinivasan reportedly maintained that his decision to invest in Jagan's Bharati Cements paid off in the ultimate analysis as he made a huge profit by selling his shares when Jagan sold his cement firm to a French player. The CBI wants to unravel as to why not only India Cements, but two other cement companies, Penna Cements and Dalmia Cements, also chose to invest in a rival cement company. Its contention is that all these three firms were given limestone mines and huge water allocations. The CBI is said to be done with the questioning of India Cements MD on Monday and that it will be the turn of the MDs of the other two companies to be quizzed beginning Tuesday.

Sources said the role of three ministers in the alleged benefits doled out by the YSR regime to the three cement companies will come under CBI scanner.

The investigating agency is slated to probe whether then revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao allotted huge tracts of land containing limestone to these companies and whether former irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah cleared the additional water allocations. The role of then mines minister Sabita Indra Reddy in granting mining licenses to these cement firms for extracting limestone will also be examined.