Special CBI court extends Jagan's judicial remand till Oct 9

Hyderabad, Sept 25: The special CBI court on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy till Oct 9 in the alleged quid pro quo deals case.

Along with Jagan, the remand of former minister Mopidevi Venkataramana and senior bureaucrats KK Brahamananda Reddy and Nimmagadda Prasad was also extended till Oct 9.

Jagan and others, presently lodged in the Chenchalguda Central Prison, were produced before the court by jail authorities after the court had earlier taken cognisance of the fourth chargesheet filed by the CBI against them.

The court permitted Jagan to have an interaction with his family members, including his mother and YSR Congress leader Vijayamma and wife Bharathi for 30 minutes, who were present during the court proceedings.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Roads and Buildings Dharmana Prasada Rao, IAS officers Manmohan Singh and M Samuel, and two others accused - Nimmagadda Prakash and Vijay Sai Reddy - appeared before the court by furnishing bail bonds (personal bonds) for Rs 25,000 with two sureties each.

The court had directed all the 14 accused named in the chargesheet to appear before it on Tuesday.

The chargesheet pertains to VANPIC project, whose promoter (industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad), allegedly invested Rs 854 crore in the companies belonging to Jagan towards a largesse for which the then AP government, led by late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, doled out many favours in the form of awarding the project.

Dharmana was the revenue minister in the YSR regime between 2004-2009, including the period when the VANPIC project was conceived.

It was alleged that as revenue minister in 2008-09, "Dharmana Prasada Rao played a key role in fixing low market price for the VANPIC land and acted more in connivance with another accused Nimmagadda Prasad." The minister has already submitted his resignation to Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, though it was yet to be accepted.

PTI