ANANTAPUR/HYDERABAD: The rumblings grew louder for Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy Wednesday with an Anantapur court sentencing a man said to be close to him to five years in jail for a failed attempt to murder TDP leader Paritala Ravi.
Dantuluri Krishna alias Mangali Krishna was accused of trying to deliver a suitcase bomb to Ravi in 2001. The bomb was intercepted by the police before it could reach the target. But Ravi was assassinated later, in January 2005, allegedly by his bitter enemy Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suri.
Krishna is believed to be a close follower of both Jagan Mohan Reddy and Suri, who was himself killed, allegedly by his own associate Bhanu Kiran, in January last year.
The arrest of Bhanu Kiran last week, his alleged confession that Mangali Krishna was a benami holder of his properties, and the conviction of Krishna himself, all in quick succession, gave scope to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s opponents to allege that the Kadapa MP lies at the centre of this web of intrigue.
The accelerated frequency of these events comes at a time when the Congress government and the opposition TDP are facing 18 crucial byelections brought on by the resignation of legislators loyal to Jagan.
Jagan’s opponents were quick to point out that Mangali Krishna was an active member of the YSR Congress Party and that his name had cropped up after the murder of Suri in Hyderabad last year and again following the arrest of Bhanu recently.
After the court verdict in Anantapur Wednesday, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu went for Jagan’s jugular, demanding that the CBI should reopen its investigation of the Paritala Ravi’s murder in the wake of the evidence now available.
After the murder of Ravi, freshly after Jagan’s father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy came to power in 2004, a CBI probe was ordered into Jagan’s alleged role in it.However, the CBI reported no evidence against Jagan.