VIJAYAWADA: National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court judge Srinivasa Anjaneya Murthy on Monday posted further hearing into the petition filed by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, seeking exemption from personally appearing before court in a case related to the 2018 rooster knife attack, to April 13.
The CM’s counsel I Venkateswarlu explained to the judge that Jagan has a busy schedule of meetings to review welfare schemes and said his visit to the court would cause great inconvenience to the public.
It may be noted that the counsel had filed two petitions — one for requesting the court to appoint an advocate commissioner to record Jagan’s statements in his presence and the other urging NIA to conduct a comprehensive probe into the rooster knife attack against Jagan at Vizag airport. While hearing the petition, the judge adjourned the case to April 13 and asked the defence counsel to file counter-petitions in this regard.
Arguing that the investigation officers failed to conduct proper verification of the accused in the case, Janepalli Srinivasa Rao, the counsel said local police at the time issued a police clearance certificate despite a case being registered against Rao at Mummidivaram police station in 2017.
Venkateswarlu opined that the accused and his employer Harshavardhan Chowdary conspired and hatched a plan to kill Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was Opposition leader then, after they learnt that he would be at the Vizag airport to head to Hyderabad for a court hearing on August 4, 2018.
It may be recalled that the NIA court had summoned Jagan and his personal assistant K Nageswara Reddy to appear before it on April 10 for deposition in the rooster knife attack case. The court gave a schedule for examination of witnesses in the case and summons were issued to 25 witnesses, directing them to appear before the special court on different dates from April 10 to 17. So far, the NIA court has questioned CISF assistant commandant Dinesh as witness. Defence counsel Abdul Saleem requested the court not to allow appointment of an advocate commissioner for taking Jagan’s statement and demanded the CM to appear before for court as a witness.