Court orders YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to mark his presence every friday

HYDERABAD: A special court hearing money-laundering cases against Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has dismissed his petition seeking exemption from personal appearance, and ordered him to be present in court during trial every Friday.
The order, of the court that tries cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), comes a fortnight after the CBI court junked a similar plea of Reddy in disproportionate-assets cases against him.

CM Reddy has been pleading the courts to exempt him from personal appearance as it involved huge expenditure to visit Hyderabad every Friday, given high security and protocols, adding a burden on his “financially poor” state. He had also sought the PMLA court’s approval to allow the other co-accused to appear before it on his behalf.

Opposing this, the Enforcement Directorate, which investigates money-laundering cases, said Reddy now being the chief minister could, with his power, influence witnesses if he was exempted from personal appearances during the trial.

Agreeing with the ED counsel’s arguments, the court said: “A1 (Reddy) shall make his appearance on next date failing which appropriate orders will be passed.”

In 2012, the CBI had filed charges against Reddy, accusing him of amassing more than Rs 1 lakh crore of wealth by misusing the office of his late father, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who was then the CM of undivided AP.

Subsequently, the ED also filed charge sheets against Reddy under the PMLA and the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Reddy was arrested in May 2012 by the CBI and had spent 16 months in Hyderabad’s central jail. He secured bail in September 2013, weeks before the then ruling Congress at the Centre decided to bifurcate AP to carve out the state of Telangana. Since then, Reddy was regularly appearing before the CBI and PMLA courts in Hyderabad on Fridays. However, after taking over as the AP chief minister in May last year, he stopped appearing before the courts, obtaining temporary exemptions each week.