CBI Jt Director meets CS over Emaar scam

Hyderabad, February 01 (INN): CBI joint director VV Laxminarayana on Tuesday denied allegations that the agency was using third degree methods to extract information from the accused in Emaar or other scams.

Talking to media persons after meeting Chief Secertary Pankaj Dwivedi at the State Secretariat, Laxminarayana said that some accused have been leveling baseless charges against the CBI in the court. He said the CBI never uses third-degree methods during interrogation. It may be mentioned that Vijaya Raghavan, an accused in the Emaar case, has alleged that he was subjected to third-degree methods by the CBI.

Regarding senior IAS officer BP Acharya, who was arrested in the Emaar scam on Monday, the CBI Joint Director said that the charge-sheet against him would be filed at a later stage depending upon the progress of the investigation. He also said that the CBI was waiting for some necessary approvals to file charge-sheet against another IAS officer Y Srilakshmi in Obulapuram Mining Corporation case.

Laxminarayana said that CBI was not targeting any individual or group. He said all the arrests were being made depending upon the progress of the investigation. When asked about the possibility of YSR Congress party president Jagan Mohan Reddy’s arrest, he said it would depend upon the progress of investigation in the case. However, he maintained that the CBI would continue its investigations and arrests, irrespective of the status of the accused.

He said that he has briefed the Chief Secretary about the status of investigations into various cases.

The CBI joint director also appealed to the media not to publish stories based on mere speculations and cross-check the facts with the CBI officials. He said that the CBI would brief the media on regular basis regarding the progress of investigations in different cases. (INN)