Jagan bundled back into CBIs hands

HYDERABAD: Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy is back in the company of the CBI after the Andhra Pradesh High Court delivered him to its custody for five days in the disproportionate assets case against him.Justice Chandra Kumar, while dismissing the petitions filed by Jagan and allowing the petitions of the CBI, set aside the order passed by a lower court remanding him in judicial custody. The agency will therefore take Jagan into its custody from the Chanchalguda prison, where he is presently lodged, Sunday morning. This time around, the grilling is likely to be more intense unlike the three ‘cool and peaceful’ days he spent with senior investigators last week, prior to his arrest on May 27 and judicial remand until June 11.In another ruling, the High Court dismissed Jagan’s petition seeking orders to declare his very arrest illegal.Though CBI sought Jagan’s custody for 10 days, the court allowed only five, beginning Sunday. Jagan will be parcelled back to court after completion of its five days on June 7.As per the High Court’s directions, Jagan will be questioned between 10.30 a.m. and 5 p.m. everyday for the next five days.Judge Chandra Kumar said in his order that as the accused is a man of money and muscle power, the CBI’s apprehensions that he might influence witnesses and tamper with the evidence has some basis.In claiming custody, the CBI contended that since the arrest of industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad and other accused persons in the case, the CBI has found evidence that investiment worth some Rs 846 crore had been routed to Jagan’s companies. This had to be verified by the agency.The judge ruled, “I do not agree with the contention of the petitioner (Jagan) that there were malafides in the arrest of the accused. Also, there was no complaint of ill-treatment from the petitoner to the lower court regarding his three days in custody.”