CBI submits probe report into Jagan's assets to HC

The richest member of the Lok Sabha and YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy may be looking at tough days ahead. The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday submitted its report to the Andhra Pradesh high court after a preliminary inquiry into the growing assets of the young member of Parliament from Kadapa.

CBI Joint Director Lakshmi Narayana personally submitted the report in a sealed cover to the court detailing the information the agency gathered during its two-week long investigation.

The high court in its July 12 order had asked the CBI to probe the allegations that Reddy had amassed wealth through illegal means and the investments made into his company by other companies were quid pro quo for the favours extended by the state government when his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of the state.

During its investigations the CBI quizzed officials of 23 companies who made the investments as well as the officials of the two of Reddy's companies -- Jagati Publications and Bharati Cements. Jagati Publications is the publisher of Telugu daily Sakshi.

According to the sources, the CBI found that investments worth Rs 1,800 crore were made into Jagati Publications and Rs 1,200 crore into Bharati Cements. Though Jagan owns several companies, these two companies have come under scrutiny of the agency for the sheer volume of investments it attracted from other companies, including several big names like GMR, Matrix Laboratory, Pennar Cements.

The CBI had issued notices to all the companies whose funds were traced to Jagan's business empire. They were asked whether they had made these investments for commercial purposes or for other considerations.

Agency sources said that they had reasons to suspect that these investments were made in exchange of allotment of land or other favours extended by the YSR government.

During its investigations the CBI also went through several key files pertaining to the departments of revenue, mining, information technology and others to check whether the government had allotted them land and other contracts in accordance with the rules and regulations.

The high court had ordered the probe on a batch of petitions, one of them filed by a state minister Dr P Shankar Rao.

Reddy had moved the Supreme Court to stay the investigations stating that it was political vendetta unleashed by the Congress government. However, the Supreme Court directed the CBI to continue its probe.

It is the first time since YSR's death in 2009 in a helicopter crash and the revolt of Jaganmohan Reddy against the Congress party that he is facing such a massive probe. CBI sources said that they will widen the scope of the probe if the high court gives them approval.

Many eyebrows were raised in the country's political circles when Jaganmohan Reddy filed a declaration with the election commission before the Kadapa Lok Sabha by elections in April putting his assets at Rs 365 crore and those of his wife at Rs 41 crore, marking a dramatic increase from 2004 when his total assets were a mere Rs 9 lakhs. In 2009 Jagan had declared his assets at Rs 77 crore.