Hyderabad: In a major setback to YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the special CBI court here refused to grant him exemption from appearance in the pending illegal assets cases against him to allow him to go on his scheduled padayatra from November 2. He has to appear in court on Fridays.
Special court judge M. Venkat Ramana said that in view of the dismissal of the plea of the petitioner by the High Court earlier, the trial court cannot entertain the application.
In September, a single judge of the Hyderabad High Court had dismissed Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy’s plea by observing that the petitioner had suddenly “invented the cause of padayatra”. The judge said that the Supreme Court had made an observation that the petitioner was facing charges of serious economic offences.
The CBI while opposing the YSRC chief’s petition argued that he cannot seek exemption citing political grounds. In view of the refusal of the petition by the High Court, the trial court cannot grant the exemption, it said.
While considering the CBI contentions, the judge dismissed the Mr Jagan’s application.
