Jagan in jail, Mother to campaign in bypolls

Hyderabad. YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, arrested in a disproportionate assets case, was today remanded in judicial custody for two weeks till June 11 by a CBI court in Hyderabad.
Principal Judge A Pullaiah dismissed the agency’s plea for 14 days’ CBI remand of 39-year-old Jagan, MP from Kadapa, who was taken into custody last evening.
The court allowed the petition of Jagan seeking special prisoner status under Andhra Pradesh prison rules.
He was later taken to the Chanchalguda central prison in the city amid tight security.
Seeking Jagan’s remand, senior CBI counsel Ashok Bhan alleged that the YSR Congress chief had “sent (bribe amount) abroad and got it reinvested in his business through hawala racket.
“Jagan never cooperated in the investigation during the three-day questioning period in true sense,” the CBI counsel alleged.
“Jagan can no longer masquerade as a victim of CBI probe. He cannot assail the CBI for being victimised. He has hoodwinked the people of a huge sum of money. He cannot seek public sympathy. He has deprived poor people and caused them irreparable loss and in turn enriched himself by dubious mechanism by sending the funds abroad and getting the same invested in his companies,” the counsel alleged.
The CBI has charged him under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 477A (falsification of accounts) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The defence counsel contended that “the arrest (of Jagan) itself is illegal when his anticipatory bail plea was pending. It is abuse of law.
“It is an attempt to somehow stop him from campaigning (for the forthcoming bypolls in Andhra Pradesh). If a person complies with the notices and appears before the agency, they should not arrest him,” Jagan’s counsel contended.