Minister for Roads and Buildings Dharmana Prasad Rao appeared in the principal court for CBI cases here on Thursday in connection with the Vanpic case in which is named among the accused.
He stood in the box for the accused along with IAS officers M. Samuel and Manmohan Singh. The court adjourned the case to November 8. This is the second time that the Minister has turned up in court after filing of the charge-sheet against Vanpic as part of the assets case against Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy. He was not present on a few occasions with the permission of the court due to the demise of his mother.
The court extended till November 8, the judicial remand of Jagan, ex-Minister Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao, Vanpic developer Nimmagadda Prasad, bureaucrat K.V. Brahmananda Reddy, former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, managing director of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) B.V.Srinivas Reddy and Jagan’s associate N.Sunil Reddy. They appeared through video linkage.
However, among those who appeared in person in the court on Thursday included Jagan’s auditor V. Vijay Sai Reddy, Ramky chairman A. Ayodhya Rami Reddy, suspended IAS officer B.P. Acharya, managing director of Aurobindo Pharma K. Nityananda Reddy and director of Hetero Drugs M. Srinivas Reddy. They were all named in different charge-sheets in Jagan’s case.
Meanwhile, the court heard the argument on behalf of Vijay Sai Reddy seeking permission to camp in New Delhi for two months in view of a case filed against him in Supreme Court by the CBI seeking quashing of his bail. The CBI opposed a blanket order for two months and said it will have no objection if he was allowed to go to the capital for specific purposes.
Sai Reddy’s lawyer G. Ashok Reddy informed the court that his client was also required to appear before the Enforcement Directorate at New Delhi on October 29.
Mr. Ashok Reddy also made out a case to replace Jagan as the representative of Jagathi Publications, Silicon Builders, Carmel Asia Holdings and Bharati Cement for future proceedings of court since he was in jail.
He suggested Raghavendra Rao, Venugopal Raju, Ramesh Babu and Balaji respectively for the four companies, but the CBI reserved its argument for next month.
Plea opposed
The court also took up a plea by Gali Janardhan Reddy’s personal assistant K.Mehfuz Ali Khan to be shifted to Bangalore jail, but the CBI opposed it on the ground that he was brought here from that city specifically to expedite investigation in the OMC case. The CBI said Khan should be detained at the Chanchalguda jail at least for two months to confront him with fresh evidence.