In a major setback to former chief minister and YCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the CBI Court to hear cases against him on a daily basis. It has given this order while admitting a PIL filed by former minister and Kapu leader Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah.
He filed this PIL in November last year seeking to direct the CBI court to take up CBI and ED cases against Jaganmohan Reddy immediately. Somehow the examination of these cases are being delayed for 12 years and Jagan continues on bail for a long time.
Harirama Jogaiah pleaded for daily hearing of these cases so as to complete trials before the Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, held in May this year, as Jaganmohan Reddy is contesting again in the elections.
The government advocate informed the high court that the case is going on before the court and the government has already filed its counter. The High Court directed the CBI to submit a complete report regarding the status of cases against YS Jagan. It postponed the next hearing to July 23.
Also, the High Court has issued instructions to Jagan’s lawyer to file a counter. In his petition Harirama Jogaiah reminded that even though the Supreme Court has given several orders to resolve the cases against public representatives as soon as possible political leaders are delaying the investigation by filing petitions upon petitions.
The petition said that the voters of Andhra Pradesh want to elect leaders who have no criminal record, and more importantly, those who do not have CBI and ED cases. At the initial stage the Telangana High Court Registry has objected to the Public Interest Litigation filed by Harirama Jogaiah. The Registry opined that the matter of personal cases against YS Jagan does not fall within the ambit of public interest litigation.
However, a bench of Chief Justice Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar suggested Harirama Jogaiah’s counsel to file an interim petition with some changes. And the bench allowed amendments in the PIL.