Hyderabad, February 05: CBI investigators probing the YSR Congress president, Y.S. Jagan’s assets case, questioned senior IAS officer and former principal secretary (Information Technology), Ms Ratna Prabha, for three and a half hours on Saturday at 10.30 am.
The CBI was seeking clarifications from her regarding the IT Special Economic Zones when she was at the helm of affairs in the department during YSR’s regime. The CBI is collecting evidence against the SEZs that invested in Jagan’s firms such as, Jagati Publications and Indira Television.
The CBI has already named Brahmani Infratech Private Limited (IT SEZ) at Mamidipalli in Saroor-nagar mandal as accused number 11 in the case, alleging that the company invested in Jagan’s companies after getting the SEZ spread over 150 acres. Speaking to this newspaper, Ms Ratna Prabha said that it was just a preliminary meeting, not an interrogation.
“The officials just wanted to check and ensure if certain files that had been cleared and circulated during our tenure, was done properly. They wanted to know about how we went about the work.
The CBI is investigating certain complaints and it is only normal that they wanted to know my version too, as I held a certain post at that time. In fact, it has got nothing to do with the Brahmani or SEZ projects,” she said.
The CBI is looking into the allotments to the IT SEZ in Vijayawada, Ranga Reddy and Warangal districts too.
Earlier, in the petition that was struck down by the CBI special court, the petitioner asked the court to include the names of six ministers and eight IAS officers, including Ratna Prabha, in the Jagan assets case. The petitioner, Sudhakar Reddy, then said that they were party to the GOs that have come under the scanner during the probe. Ratna Prabha’s name cropped up in the Raheja case that was earlier filed with the Anti Corruption Bureau.
—Agencies