CBI names Sabita in Jagan-Dalmia case

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Hyderabad: The CBI on Monday named home minister Sabita Indra Reddy as an accused in its fifth chargesheet in the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy illegal investments case.
The chargesheet pertains to the allotment of 407 hectares of land in Kadapa district to Eshwar Cements for limestone mining. It says most of the land was later re-allocated to Dalmia Cements, which invested in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Bharati Cements.
The chargesheet says Dalmia Cements purchased shares, each worth Rs 110, at an exaggerated premium of Rs 1,440 in Bharati Cements and invested Rs 95 crore in the firm. The CBI alleges this was a quid pro quo deal.
Indira Reddy has been named for the role she played in the alleged deal, when she was the mines and minerals minister in the YSR government.
The CBI alleged the land was first allocated to Jaya Cements — accused in the illegal mining case involving former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy — and later cancelled.
Subsequently, it was given to Eshwar Cements after the firm allegedly wrote to the government saying that Dalmia Cements was its sister concern, and sought transfer of a part of the land to the firm. The CBI says Indra Reddy, despite knowing this was untrue, transferred the land to Dalmia Cements.
Sabita, 3rd minister to be accused, offers to resign
Home minister Sabita Indra Reddy on Tuesday submitted her resignation letter from the Cabinet after the CBI named her as an accused in the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy illegal investments case.
She called on Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in the evening and handed over the letter. The Chief Minister, and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana, who spoke with the minister, however, suggested that she “wait and watch” the situation before taking a final decision.
Sources told this newspaper that the Chief Minister reposed confidence in the minister who, according to him, cleared files relating to transfer of mines from one cement company to another in a “routine” manner.
The top leaders were said to have stated that the practice was common, and that hundreds of similar applications were lying with the government.
Indra Reddy explained that she had only followed the procedures and never benefited from any of the decisions. Maintaining that she was holding a sensitive portfolio, the minister said she wanted to resign on moral grounds.
The PCC chief later told the media that she had been asked to wait till the chargesheet was handed over and a thorough study done.
Indra Reddy is the third member of the Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet to figure as accused in the Jagan Mohan Reddy cases after Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and Dharmana Prasada Rao.
Next: CBI lists 13 accused

CBI lists 13 accused
In its fifth chargesheet in the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy illegal investments case, the CBI has filed charges under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy to cheat), 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), and Sections 13(2)/31 (criminal misconduct), Sections 9 (taking gratification) and 12 (abetment of offences) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The chargesheet has listed 13 accused which includes three companies — Raghuram Cements, Dalmia Cements and Eshwar Cements.
The CBI’s main allegation is that Jagan Mohan Reddy used Bharati Cements as a front to accumulate wealth that was acquired for favours done. Eshwar Cements was named, because the company, instead of bringing the reallocation of its lands to the notice of the authorities, had collaborated with others.
As for requiring government sanction to prosecute Sabita Indra Reddy under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the CBI stated that it was not necessary to wait for government sanction as at the time of filing the chargesheet, she was not a minister, the Assembly having been dissolved and a new ministry formed.
The other accused in the fifth chargesheet are bureaucrats Y. Srilakshmi and V.D. Rajagopal, who are also accused in the Obulapuram Mining Company case of Gali Janardhan Reddy. On being asked by the court, the CBI clarified that it had sought sanction for the prosecution of Srilakshmi in the Dalmia Cements case.
While Jagan Mohan Reddy and his financial adviser Vijay Sai Reddy remain No. 1 and No. 2 accused in this case too, the CBI said there was a marginal difference in the allegation against the auditor in the fifth chargesheet from the earlier four.
The CBI clarified this in open court after Sai Reddy pleaded with the court to postpone the framing of charges in all the cases filed against him, contending that the allegations were the same in all the chargesheets filed so far, and can be expected to be so in the upcoming ones too.
No more ministers likely to be arrested
Though it is a foregone conclusion that the CBI will not arrest any more ministers in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s illegal investments case, and the Chief Minister will not accept the resignations of ministers named in charge-sheets, speculation was rife whether home minister Sabita Indra Reddy will repeat the resignation drama of Prasada Rao.
The roads and buildings minister had also put in his papers on moral grounds and then lobbied with other ministers to put pressure on the Chief Minister not to accept the letter.
Earlier in the evening, Indra Reddy was closetted with senior leaders including PCC chief and finance minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, who held discussions with the Chief Minister who returned from New Delhi. Sources said the Chief Minister wants to avoid the embarrassment of withholding the resignations and prefers that the home minister should not go the Prasada Rao way.
“The CBI should be blamed for the present unhealthy trend. The government’s job will be easier if the CBI adopts a uniform approach for all the ministers who figure in the cases,” sources in the government said.
The government was under no obligation to sanction or deny prosecution of Venkata Ramana because he had stepped down as minister at the time of his arrest, sources added.
Significantly, the fate of three more ministers — Dr J. Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Kanna Lakshminarayana —   hangs in the balance. They were involved in issuing 26 GOs which form the basis for the quid pro quo charges against Jagan Mohan Reddy. The CBI has excluded the name of Lakshminarayana in its counter-affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in the 26 GOs case.
Though it was expected that Indra Reddy would figure in the OMC scam, the CBI recorded her statement as a witness. The CBI had supported her when Y. Srilakshmi had questioned why the agency had spared the minister when she had only followed the minister’s instructions.