Jagan responds to wife Bharathi's name in ED chargesheet, slams Andhra CM Naidu

YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday questioned media reports surrounding the move of the Enforcement Directorate, which named his wife YS Bharathi as one of the accused in the illegal assets case.

In an open letter, Jagan said that he and his wife only learnt about the news after reading it in the media.

“It will be known to everyone including us, about what is there in the chargesheet once the judge takes it into account. However, how did this information become known to some local media even before that? Who told them? Who has the need to sling mud on us? Who has enmity which directed them to not just target me but my entire family? Why are they adding persons and companies which CBI never acknowledged, after these many years?” Jagan asked.

He also pointed out that it had been seven years since cases were filed against him by TDP and Congress in 2011.

“They have filed many chargesheets and even put me in jail by arresting me unjustly, and making me run around courts. After the demise of YSR, as I pledged to take out a condolence yatra, the Congress and TDP thinking that I will garner the public’s affection, filed cases against me. I have been swimming against the odds for 7 years,” Jagan added.

The YSRCP chief also said that he had informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi through an earlier letter, that two ED officials were “working under the orders of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu” to harass him, urging authorities to check their call data for proof.

“If there is fact in the mudslinging of Naidu, who claims that there was an internal alliance between us and the BJP, would such a situation have emerged? Would they have added the name of my wife, who has nothing to do with the case, in the chargesheet?” Jagan asked.

He also accused Naidu of a ‘marital life’ with Congress in the day and an affair with BJP at night.

“In the last nine years, irrespective of who was at the Centre, we have fought for the state from the United AP movement to Special Category Status (SCS) without compromising or stepping back, unlike Naidu,” Jagan said.

Jagan also accused Naidu of attacking his father and him and now indirectly his wife ‘through his allies’.

“If such acts are accepted, who will have protection in the country? Will democracy even be alive? Everyone must give it a thought,” he concluded.

Background

The allegations against Jagan relate to the period 2004-2009. Jaganmohan Reddy, who was arrested in May 2012, spent 16 months in jail before he was released on bail in 2013.

The allegations suggest that Jagan Reddy, in criminal conspiracy with others, got a mining lease illegally allotted to Bharathi Cement Corporation Private Limited, and received bribes from various persons/companies in the guise of investments in his group companies as 'quid pro quo' for undue favours granted to them by the Andhra Pradesh government when Jagan's father YS Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister.

The CBI has filed 11 chargesheets against Jagan, senior government officials, and businessmen from Andhra in the 'quid pro quo' investment case.

The ED's zonal office in Hyderabad has said that it has registered a criminal case against Jaganmohan Reddy and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a chargesheet filed by the CBI.