VIJAYAWADA: Ridiculing the claim of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy before the CBI special court, Hyderabad, that the State government will have to spend Rs 60 lakh for his appearance in the court in a day, senior TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Saturday said that as the alleged disproportionate asset cases were filed against the former when he was not in power, there was no need to spend public money for the same. He demanded that the YSRC chief bear the expenses for appearing before the court every week.
Recalling that Sibu Soren attended court when he was the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Yanamala said everyone is equal before the law. In a release issued on Saturday, Yanamala said that the possibilities of influencing the witnesses related to the cases increased after Jagan became Chief Minister. Alleging that Jagan is trying to escape from attending the court citing wastage of public money, he sought to know if the Chief Minister is sincere in saving public money, how can his government appoint a number of persons as advisors and misuse money for their wages and other facilities.
“How can the government spend public money for a person’s appearance in court in an illegal assets case? As the cases are individual in nature, public money should not be spent and Jagan will have to attend the court every week using his own money,’’ Yanamala demanded. The Special CBI Court had on Friday reserved its orders to November 1 in the petition filed by Jagan seeking exemption from personal appearance before the court and to allow his advocate to appear on his behalf during the hearing.