HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to submit the report in a sealed cover on Friday of the ongoing SIT probe into the knife attack on YSR Congress president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at Visakhapatnam International Airport on October 25. The single judge should have heard the writ petition filed by the victim in stead of tagging it with the PIL case, the bench observed.
The bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice SV Bhatt was dealing with the petition filed by Jagan seeking probe into the attack on him be given to any appropriate independent agency not under the control of the government. Pursuant to earlier direction by a single judge, petition filed by YSR Congress, represented by former MP YV Subba Reddy, and PIL filed by Anil Kumar and Amarnath Reddy seeking CBI probe were tagged with Jagan’s petition.
Senior counsel CV Mohan Reddy, appearing for Jagan, told the court that though the attempted murder took place on the life of the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, the police was misleading the entire investigation into a pre-determined direction.
Without any investigation into the incident, the Chief Minister and the DGP said that the attack was a publicity stunt. To unearth the conspiracy behind the incident, it needs to be probed by an independent agency not under the control of the State government, he added. He said that there was no relation between the present case and the PIL as the latter was seeking CBI investigation into security lapses at the airport that led to the incident.
On the other hand, AP advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas submitted that the police have already registered the FIR and were investigating the case. In fact, the petitioner was not cooperating with the AP police and refused to give his statement on the incident.Intervening, senior counsel Mohan Reddy said that his client has no confidence on the State police investigation and hence refused to cooperate.After hearing the case, the bench directed the AP AG to submit probe report in a sealed cover by Friday and adjourned the case hearing.