Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary P. Ramakanth Reddy’s interview to Jagan’s news channel, Sakshi TV and Sakshi Telugu daily newspaper is the provocation for the CBI’s petition before the special court on 28 March. The CBI special court in Hyderabad posted the matter for hearing on 7 April and issued notices to Jagan. In the interview, the former chief secretary has stoutly defended Jagan (the only son of late YSR) by saying that he never sought any personal or other favours from him when he was the chief secretary. “Jagan never approached me either as an individual or a politician or an MP, though his father was the CM when I was in office,” said Ramakanth Reddy.
Summing up the interview, Reddy felt that the cases against Jagan would not stand in the court of law as they were built on weak ground and the CBI had filed charge-sheets without understanding the “scope and nature” of functioning of a state government and its various offices like the Secretariat, Cabinet and the Chief Minister’s office.
Jagan’s legal aides are preparing a counter to the CBI’s petition that would come up for hearing next Friday. “We will oppose the cancellation of the bail as Jagan has been fully cooperating with the CBI all these days,” a lawyer from the YSR Congress’ legal cell told this newspaper on Thursday.
The CBI, which has been silent on the case for the last four years, has created commotion by filing the bail cancellation petition at a time when the Andhra Pradesh Assembly is in budget session. Hearings as well as the outcome of the petition would have political consequences as the next general elections are a little over two years away. If Jagan’s bail is cancelled, it may affect his political prospects.
Jagan who got bail after knocking the doors of the Supreme Court, walked out of the Chenchalguda Central Jail on 23 September 2013 and fought the 2014 elections to win 67 MLAs in an Assembly of 175 members. Jagan got 8 out of 25 LS seats. He was arrested by the CBI on 27 May 2012 in a disproportionate assets case that saw as many as 11 charge-sheets.
Ramakanth Reddy, a 1973 batch IAS officer, was made the chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh by then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in April 2008 after bypassing those senior to him. Ramakanth Reddy was in the post for about 18 months till his retirement. Before that, he served as the chief commissioner of land administration and finance secretary while the late YSR was the CM.
The CBI earlier interrogated Ramakanth Reddy thrice—in February and July 2012 and August 2013—in the Jagan cases as witness in two charge-sheets—witness no 36 in the Vanpic case and witness no 18 in the Indu Tech case. In its petition seeking Jagan’s bail cancellation, the CBI alleged that Ramakanth Reddy’s interview was an attempt to dilute the case, influence witnesses and damage the reputation of the CBI.
Moreover, the CBI said that the former chief secretary, in the interview, talked differently from what he has deposed before the CBI in the form of an affidavit which was submitted to the court. The CBI has told the special court that the former top bureaucrat appeared to have been convinced by Jagan to give this interview to the TV channel (the same was picked by the newspaper the next day).
In the contentious interview in Telugu to Sakshi TV, Ramakanth Reddy questioned the “lack of knowledge about rules and procedures of a state secretariat” and Cabinet on the part of the then CBI joint director (JD) V.V. Lakshminarayana who filed the cases against Jagan in 2010 and the loopholes of the case to stand legal scrutiny before the courts.
In his interview for a talk show called “Manasulo Mata”, Ramakanth Reddy also recalled some of his conversations with Lakshminarayana when he was summoned for questioning at state government owned Dilkusha Guest House. The CBI also objected to these recollections as an attempt to project the investigating agency in poor light and damage its credibility.
Ramakanth Reddy, in the interview, said that the CBI JD seems to have no idea about the rules, procedures, powers and functioning of state secretariat or the state cabinet. “When I was called for grilling at the Dilkusha Guest House, Lakshminarayana had showed me 48 files and asked me how I had signed them when the file notes were otherwise,” said the former Chief Secretary.
He went on to say: “Perhaps the CBI was not aware of the system in which secretaries and the Cabinet functions. We, secretaries, have no choice or right to question the decisions of the Cabinet and there is no provision to seek explanation or justification for Cabinet resolutions. The Cabinet has powers to overrule the note files from the lower rung officers. That is the rule position here.”
Ramakanth Reddy, in the interview, had shared his conversation with the CBI JD during the course of his interrogation. “I asked him (JD) how he can investigate the decisions of a Cabinet when the Chief Minister (YSR) was not alive. You cannot call for individual ministers, because all Cabinet decisions are collective decisions and no single minister can be made answerable to the decisions,” said the former CS.
“When I asked the CBI official, whether the cases would stand the test of law before the courts, he (JD) didn’t reply to me, but simply laughed away. When I asked him whether he can also call so and so other officials too for questioning, the officer told me ‘No sir, it’s not in my purview and the High Court (which directed the CBI to investigate the cases) hasn’t given me permission for that,” said Ramakanth Reddy.