The new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, has given the green signal to the CBI to conduct investigations in Andhra Pradesh.
On Thursday, a GO was issued restoring the general consent for the CBI to conduct investigations in State after the previous Telugu Desam Party government withdrew the consent and sujected it to the prior permission of the State government. The TDP had alleginged that the CBI and other investigative agencies were being misusinged by the Modi government to target political opponents.
Following the cue, other States such as West Bengal also followed suit. Now, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government has reversed the decision.
Speculations are that the new government has taken the decision to facilitate CBI probe into the various alleged misdeeds, including the mega Polavaram irrigation project on the Godavari in the State in Amravati, of the previous TDP government.
As Opposition leader, Jagan Mohan Reddy had demanded CBI probe into “the huge land scams perpetrated by Chandrababu Naidu and other TDP leaders in the new capital area.” He reiterated those charges immediately after winning the election.
Jagan Mohan Reddy himself is facing nealy 11 cases filed by the CBI against him on the charges of quid pro quo and other malpractices allegedly perpetrated during his late father Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s tenure as Chief minister.
Previous allegations
These cases were filed against him on a petition filed by a Congress leader, P Shankar Rao. Later, TDP leaders such late Yerram Naidu impleaded themselves in the cases. The cases are proceeding against Jagan Mohan Reddy in the CBI court in Hyderabad.
Often, in his interviews and also in public speeches, Jagan Mohan Reddy had alleged that the CBI was being misused by the UPA Government, aided by the TDP leaders, to implicate him in these cases.