In a setback for Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy here on Monday, a special court for CBI cases upheld the action of the investigating agency in freezing the bank accounts of Sakshi daily and television channel on the ground that there was a possibility of misuse of funds if they were de-freezed.
The court was also of the view that this was not the stage to come to a conclusion on the legality or illegality of money parked in the accounts as it was the subject matter of trial.
The CBI had, in all, last Tuesday frozen 11 current accounts of Jagati Publications which runs Sakshi daily, Indira Television which runs Sakshi TV and Janani Infrastructure held in Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills branches of SBI, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Indian Overseas Bank. The balance in these accounts was Rs.10.31 crore and a fixed deposit of Rs.103 crore.
The counsel for Jagati Publications had requested the court to de-freeze at least the two accounts of the daily in Banjara Hills branch of SBI with a balance of Rs.8 crore against security to be furnished in the form of immovable properties, but the CBI turned it down on the ground that it was ill-gotten money. He insisted that the operation of the accounts was needed to meet its day-to-day expenditure and also in view of cheques worth Rs.3.13 crore that were already issued.
The CBI told the court that it has so far detected tainted amount worth Rs.74 crore in Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy's businesses. It also said the daily did not face any crisis even after freezing of the accounts as it had other sources of income.
An offer of CBI to open new accounts if the newspaper wanted was rejected by defence counsel G. Ashok Reddy saying the agency would launch similar proceedings against them.
Moreover, the frozen accounts were meant for income and expenditure and the daily could not have multiple accounts. He said his client would challenge the order in High Court.
The court also dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Srikanth Joshi, managing director of Emaar MGF Land.
