The special court for CBI cases will hear the charges framed against Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the four chargesheets filed by the CBI, on February 27.
The court asked the investigating agency to file a memo on the reasons for the extension of the remand of the accused and the stage of case investigation.
The court on Thursday extended the judicial remand of all the accused in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s assets, OMC illegal mining and Emaar scam cases till February 27.
When Jagan Mohan Reddy was produced before the court through video linkage, his counsel took exception to the CBI seeking extension of judicial remand without mentioning any reason.
“He (Jagan Mohan Reddy) has been lodged in prison for more than seven months. Till what time the CBI wants to keep him in prison?” the counsel questioned.
The defence counsel informed the court that the last chargesheet had been filed on August 14, 2012, and thereafter nothing happened. Not a single report had been filed about the investigation since then, he said.
The defence counsel said the investigating agency is trying to take undue advantage citing Supreme Court observations in the bail petition filed by Jagan Mohan Reddy earlier.
“The Supreme Court has asked the CBI to file the chargesheet at the earliest. Let them report to the court when they would file the chargesheet. Under the guise of filing the chargesheet, they can’t keep the accused in prison,” the counsel said.
Citing various Supreme Court judgments, the defence said an accused cannot be kept in prison on the grounds of pending investigation.
CBI deputy legal advisor B Ravindranath said the investigating agency did not file any report after August last as the Supreme Court had asked them to file a single chargesheet after completing the investigation.
Ravindranath said that with the accused inside prison, the investigating agency is probing the case freely and people are coming forward to depose before it.