In a spell of fresh trouble for the Congress government on Monday, the Supreme Court issued notices to six Ministers and eight Indian Administrative Service officers from Andhra Pradesh on a petition alleging that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not proceeding against them despite having sufficient evidence that they helped Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy accumulate massive illegal assets.
A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra issued the notices and sought their stands on the petition filed by an advocate hailing from Nellore district, P. Sudhakar Reddy, who alleged that 26 Government Orders were issued by them in violation of the law.
The Ministers are P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, J. Geetha Reddy, Dharmana Prasada Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Kanna Lakshminarayana and Mopidevi Venkataramana, all of whom held important portfolios even in the erstwhile Cabinet of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy when the controversial orders were issued.
The eight IAS officers in the dock are: S.V. Prasad (now retired), C.V.S.K. Sarma, M. Samuel, Y. Srilakshmi, Adityanath Das, K. Ratna Prabha, B. Sam Bob, Manmohan Singh, who headed the Revenue, Municipal Administration, Infrastructure & Investments, Industries & Commerce and Irrigation Departments.
Mr. Sudhakar Reddy, in his petition, said none of the 14 Ministers and bureaucrats found a place in the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the CBI, which had registered a number of cases against several others in the disproportionate assets case involving Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy. These persons were responsible for the 26 deals that took place between the government and different companies. The petitioner had earlier petitioned the Special Court for the CBI currently hearing the case that Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy had accumulated disproportionate assets as a quid pro quo from investors who benefited from decisions taken during the late YSR's regime. After the Court rejected his plea, Mr. Sudhakar Reddy moved the A.P. High Court, which also quashed his petition.
In his special leave petition, Mr. Sudhakar Reddy contended that the Ministers and officials were privy to the YSR government's orders which allegedly benefited some of the firms belonging to Mr. Jagan. But, the FIR omitted the names of the primary offenders in the list of the accused despite their knowledge of who actually issued the orders.
