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Jagathi publication vice president Vijay Sai Reddy arrested
The first arrest in the alleged illegal assets case pertaining to YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy, the CBI on Monday took into its custody Vijay Sai Reddy, the financial advisor of Jagathi Publications and other companies owned by the son of YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Like more than a dozen times before, Vijay Sai Reddy was summoned by the CBI on Monday afternoon for questioning in the Jagan illegal assets case, but by 7 pm, after grilling him for nearly eight hours, the investigative agency arrested him. Vijay Sai is slated to be produced before the CBI court on Tuesday.
Confirming the arrest, CBI joint director V V Lakshminarayana said Vijay Sai Reddy has been charged under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 477 (A) (Falsification of accounts) of the IPC and section 13 (2) read with 13 (1) D of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While the charge against Jagan is that he conspired with his late father YS Rajasekhara Reddy and rolled out public assets to unscrupulous private investors and got investments into his companies on a quid pro quo basis, the charge against Vijay Sai Reddy is that as the group's financial advisor, he played the role of a main conspirator in clothing the illegal transactions with a seemingly legal cover with the help of his expertise in the auditing and financial management areas. Rerouting of black money into Jagan companies is one of the prime tasks he handled and this made him culpable, CBI sources said.
Sources said Mr. Vijay Sai Reddy was detained by the CBI throughout Monday and taken to his residence at Jubilee Hills in the night for search of the premises. The case was booked on the order of High Court based on a complaint by Handlooms and Textiles Minister P. Shankar Rao. The accused were charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts and criminal misconduct. The special court for CBI cases had recently struck down a petition of Mr. Vijay Sai Reddy challenging the act of the investigating agency in expanding the scope of probe in the case. He has been charged with mischief in sale of shares of Sandur Power Company owned by Jagan. It involved fictitious transaction in 82 lakh shares amounting to Rs. 533 crore.
While Vijay Sai Reddy has been maintaining that he cannot be booked under section 409 of the IPC as he is not a public servant, the CBI went ahead and did so on the grounds that he squarely falls under the definition of a public servant.
Mon 02 Jan, 2012,9:28:05 PM
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