Hyderabad, November 17: The Central Bureau of Investigation’s Hyderabad unit, which is handling many high-profile cases, is unlikely to take up the case of former CM N. Chandrababu Naidu’s illegal assets.
The case is likely to be entrusted to other units by the CBI headquarters. CBI Hyderabad is already probing into cases like the Satyam scam, Gali Janardhan Reddy’s illegal mining case, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s assets case, Emaar scam, Railway recruitment scam, Abu Salem passport case etc.
Sources said that CBI-Delhi will be deciding on the team that will probe into Mr Naidu’s case. A special unit may be set up at Hyderabad, but the officers may be drawn from other states or the entire investigation may be handed over to another unit. Officials, who were drawn from Visakhapatnam, are also working in the city on various cases. For instance the investigation officer in the Emaar scam, Mr S.C. Jiani, is a DSP from Visakhapatnam.
The multi-disciplinary investigation team is also burdened with verifying voluminous documents seized in these cases. There are only three supervisory officers — joint director V.V. Lakshminarayana, SP H. Venkatesh and additional SP RM Khan — for these cases.
The officials are working day and night and also on holidays to meet the deadlines set by courts. The OMC case status has to be filed in the SC and the CBI is racing against time to file chargesheet by the first week of December. In Mr Naidu’s case, the High Court has set a deadline of three months. Meanwhile the high-profile cases are also affecting regular traps and cases of disproportionate assets as the total focus is on big cases. The number of traps and assets cases have come down.
Jagan-PM plot to defame Naidu: TD leader
After the meeting of senior leaders at Chandrababu Naidu’s residence, politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said, “Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy struck a deal with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in September to file cases against Mr Naidu in exchange of providing relief to him in the on-going CBI probe.
After meeting the PM, Jagan Mohan Reddy toned down his attack on the Congress and even said that he would support it in the 2014 election. The first part of the deal was that the Congress would promise to dilute the on-going CBI probe against Mr Reddy. The second was that he would file cases against Mr Naidu through Vijayamma and the final part would be the merger of YSR Congress with the Congress,” he said.
He said that if Mr Naidu had been given a chance by the High Court to explain, then things would have been different. “We don’t find fault with the High Court’s judgement, but we feel that the HC should have given Mr Naidu a chance to explain the charges since most of them have already been probed and are old,” he said.