YSR Congress Party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy will approach the Supreme Court on Tuesday to challenge the Andhra Pradesh High Court's
order asking the CBI to probe into his alleged illegal assets.
Speaking to media persons on Monday at the party office after hoisting the national flag, Jagan claimed that it was his friends who had invested in Saakshi, Bharati Cements and his power projects, in a normal course, with good faith in him, and that they had earned substantial profits in return.
Citing an example, he said that one of his friends, Prasad, had invested Rs. 256 crores in Bharati Cements and earned returns of Rs. 500 crores.
Jagan said that the allegations against him were being leveled only after he quit the Congress party. He said that the character of his late father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who played an important role in bringing back the party to power in the state and the centre, was being maligned.
"It is all because they don't want someone who has left the Congress party to come back to power in the state," he fumed.
Jagan said that it was not proper to level charges against someone who is no more in the world.
Criticising the Congress party, he denied allegations of amassing huge wealth during his father's tenure as CM.
Defending YSR, Jagan said the decisions to allot land or provide other benefits were taken only after the approval of the Cabinet.
Targeting TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, he said even Babu had allotted thousands of acres of lands to private organizations during his 9-year-long regime, and sought to know why he was not being questioned about the same.
Jagan said that Babu had earlier termed the CBI as the "Congress Bureau Of Investigation", and that the same person was now asking the CBI to enquire into his assets.
Jagan said that his father had followed the same guidelines, introduced by Chandrababu Naidu, in the allotment of lands. He also denied that he ever influenced any decision of the government, and claimed that he had never visited the Chief Minister's camp office or the Secretariat.
He challenged his opponents to ask people like Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, how many times they had called up the Chief Minister to influence his decisions.
Jagan said that the Prime Minister hasn't ordered a CBI inquiry into the 2G scam case which involved crores of rupees, but that the Congress was now targeting a "young and helpless man who has no support".
Jagan claimed that Sakshi is in 9th biggest newspaper in the country with a circulation of 14.5 lakh and a readership of 1.4 crore. (INN)