Four ministers - J Gita Reddy, Sabita Indra Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Kanna Lakshminarayana - who received Supreme Court notices in March regarding the issuance of 26 controversial GOs during the late YSR’s regime, discussed their next course of action in the wake of the CBI stepping up investigation of the “motives” behind the issuance of the GOs.
The four ministers and senior IAS officers M Samuel and Manmohan Singh who were listed as accused in the charge-sheet filed by the CBI in YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s assets case, conferred with state government’s counsel Jogi Naidu in the Supreme Court and sought his opinion as to what their next move should be. Dharmana Prasada Rao did not turn up at the meeting.
The four ministers had already filed their responses to the notices, but in the backdrop of Dharmana Prasada Rao, Samuel and Manmohan Singh receiving summons to appear before the court on Sept 25, the ministers took stock of the situation.
According to sources, they wanted their arguments to be effectively conveyed in courts in the event of them being called to depose before the court or the CBI questioning them, as it happened in former minister Mopidevi Venkataramana’s case.
Later, speaking to mediapersons, Kanna Lakshminarayana said they had issued the GOs in good faith and that if every decision taken by a minister is studied under a microscope, no one would be able to perform their duties as ministers. “All the GOs were in order and in accordance with business rules. If these decisions were declared wrong, then it was not he alone but all those who worked as ministers till now would have to go to prison,” he said.
The ministers went into a huddle at Gita Reddy’s chamber even as the TDP members led a procession on the Assembly premises, demanding the immediate dismissal of all the tainted ministers.