Though the Supreme Court and High Courts are monitoring the quick disposal of corruption cases against MLAs and MPs, Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has been successfully managing so that no trial begins in all cases against him. The Apex court directed that such cases should be settled within three years. But for more than 12 years, cases on Jagan continued.
CBI and ED have filed a total of 20 chargesheets as per the orders of the High Court stating that Jagan has committed a quid pro quo by misusing the authority of his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy, when the later was chief minister of the combined state of Andhra Pradesh.
The judgment is to be pronounced on Tuesday on the 130 discharge petitions filed by Jagan, Vijaya Sai Reddy and other accused persons seeking to get rid of them from the respective charge sheets. The High Court has already extended the deadline once to resolve these issues.
This deadline also ended on April 30. It was expected that the verdict in these petitions would come out on Tuesday. However, CBI Court Judge Ramesh Babu stated that judgments could not be prepared due to illness.
In the recent transfers, Ramesh Babu was also transferred to another court. Due to this, it is stated that the cases are being postponed to May 15 to hear them from the beginning. With this, the investigation which has been going on for 12 years seems to have started again.
Since 2013, seven judges have been transferred to the CBI court. Recently, the transfer of Ramesh Babu has become a topic of discussion. In the transfer orders, the High Court has stated that in the recent transfers, they should give judgments in the reserved cases and report where they have been transferred.
However, Judge Ramesh Babu stated that the judgments could not be prepared due to illness. From May 4, 2022, he heard lengthy arguments on the discharge petitions related to Jagan’s illegal activities. As he was transferred at the time when the verdict was to be pronounced, he announced that the cases would be reopened.
This made it necessary for the new judge to hear these cases from the beginning. Another twist in this is that the new judge is also approaching the retirement age. If it takes a decade just for petitions, when will the main cases come up for trial? When we may expect verdicts?