The court issues 17 notices, over 26 GOs that were issued during YSR's tenure as CM.
The Supreme Court, on Monday, issued notices to 6 Andhra Pradesh ministers and 11 senior IAS officers, on a plea alleging that the Central Bureau of Investigation was not proceeding against them despite having sufficient evidence that they had helped YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in accumulating massive illegal assets.
A division bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari issued the notices to the ministers and the IAS officers, apart from the CBI, and sought their stands on the special leave petition filed by a Nellore-based advocate P Sudhakar Reddy.
The court issued notices to the ministers and bureaucrats, on 26 GOs that were issued during Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's tenure as Chief Minister, to allegedly favour business deals of his son Jaganmohan Reddy.
The petitioner alleged that the 6 ministers and 11 IAS officers were also holding ministerial and other key positions under the then Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, during whose tenure his son Jaganmohan Reddy had accumulated huge wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The ministers who have been served notices are Sabitha Indra Reddy, J Geetha Reddy, Ponnala Laxmaiah, Dharmana Prasad Rao, Kanna Laxminarayana and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana.
The IAS officers were Y Srilakshmi, Manmohan Singh, Ratna Prabha, C V S K Sharma, Shamuel, Shyam Babu, Adityanath Das and S V Prasad.
The petitioner challenged the orders of the AP High Court and the CBI special court, of rejecting a probe into the issue.
In his petition, Sudhakar reddy contended that the investigation cannot be confined to Jaganmohan Reddy alone, and that the role of the ministers and bureaucrats in facilitating his business deals must also be probed.
Reddy said that even though the CBI has registered a number of cases against several others in Jagan's assets, it has failed to register any case against these persons.
Meanwhile, the issue was echoed in the state Legislative Assembly during Question Hour. Raising the issue, TDP deputy floor Gali Muddu Krishnamanaidu demanded that the ministers who have been served notices be dismissed from the cabinet.
Rejection the demand, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the TDP was raising the issue only to get mileage for the by-elections.
He said the government would not interfere in judicial matters, and that it would react only after studying the notices.
Later, the TDP members rushed to the Speaker's podium, raising slogans against the government. Following the uproar, Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka adjourned the House for 10 minutes. (INN)