HYDERABAD: Chief Justice of Telangana High Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Friday dismissed the petition filed by Syam Prasad Reddy, Managing Director of Indu Group Projects, seeking a stay on proceedings in the Jagan Mohan Reddy assets case (CC No.26 of 2014) pending in the court for CBI cases, Nampally.
Justice Bhuyan observed that the petitioner provided an account of his business transactions without revealing anything details about his frequent visits outside Hyderabad. “There have been no compelling reasons or grounds stated as to why the petitioner should be granted universal immunity from presence in the criminal proceeding. Petitioner cannot be granted a blanket or broad exemption,” he observed.
“In the circumstances, the court is unlikely to exercise its competence under the Cr.P.C. to grant petitioner general exemption from personal attendance. If a petitioner is unable to appear on a specific day of appearance for good reason, he may apply to the CBI court for exemption. If such an application is filed, the CBI court will consider it in accordance with the law.”
According to the charge sheet, accused No 1 Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy exerted undue influence on his late father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, for extending benefits to the accused persons, such as allotment of land, setting up of ports, Special Economic Zones licences, permissions, and so on, in exchange the beneficiaries paid bribes to Jagan Mohan Reddy in the form of investing in his companies at highly inflated premia.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan also dismissed a quash petition filed by B P Kumar Babu, the 13th accused in the case of Lepakshi Knowledge Hub. CBI attorney K Surender told the court that the petitioner had set up shell companies to shift ‘50 crore to Jagan’s firms, and that the money came from his company, Corner Stone Properties.