ED granted permission to question Jaganmohan Reddy

Hyderabad, Jul 6: A local CBI special Court today granted permission to the Enforcement Directorate to question

Party chief

with regard to suspected foreign fund flow into his firms.

The Court allowed the ED sleuths to grill the Kadapa MP from tomorrow till Jul 21.

According to Subba Rao, Counsel for ED, the questioning can be done from 10 am to 5 pm in the presence of the lawyers of the accused.

The CBI court earlier heard arguments of both the ED and Jagan and reserved its orders for today. Responding to the plea of the ED to examine him on charges of money-laundering as a representative of Jagathi Publications, Jagan filed a counter-affidavit in the CBI court stating that the company had appointed its secretary CPN Karthik to appear in all inquiries and legal proceedings and hence he be exempted from the questioning.

ED argued that Jagan's resignation from Jagati Publications was immaterial as the agency suspected him of contravening provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED viewed him as a suspect and not an accused.

CBI's FIR which has been the basis for ED's investigation alleged that Jagati Publications, which publishes Telugu daily Sakshi, received investments from firms based abroad in return for the favours doled out to them by Rajasekhara Reddy's Government.

After obtaining the Court's permission, ED had earlier questioned some of the accused, including Industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad, former Infrastructure Special Secretary KV Brahmananda Reddy and suspended IAS officer BP Acharya in Chanchalguda prison.

PTI