CBI plays second innings with BCCI chief over Jagan case

Cricket board chief and India Cements managing director N Srinivasan was questioned again by the CBI on Saturday in connection with the illegal assets case against Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The CBI had questioned Srinivasan for seven hours on June 18 but asked him to present himself again on Saturday. Srinivasan walked into the CBI’s makeshift office at Dilkusha guest house at 10 am today. Sources said Srinivasan had told CBI during his earlier interview with the agency that there was no wrongdoing by his company. ‘’Srinivasan did not come out with convincing replies to some queries in the first round of questioning and therefore, he was summoned again today,’’ sources said.

The agency quizzed Srinivasan with regard to the alleged investments made by India Cements in firms promoted by Jagan Mohan Reddy when his father, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

The agency had earlier alleged that Srinivasan’s company was given huge allocations of water from the Krishna and Kagna rivers by the YSR administration. The latter reportedly issued two government orders (GOs) allotting water to India Cements plants in Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Water allocation to the Nalgonda plant was enhanced from three lakh gallons to 10 lakh gallons per day, and from three lakhs gallon to 13 lakh gallons per day to its plant in Ranga Reddy district.

The CBI is also probing whether in the process of allotment of water the YSR government violated the Bachawat tribunal norms on sharing of the Krishna river waters between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

For the favours it received, India Cements is alleged to have invested about `135 crores in Jagati Publications Private Limited (JPPL) and other firms owned by Jagan, who is presently lodged in the high security Chanchalguda central prison in Hyderabad after his arrest on May 27.

In its chargesheet, CBI alleged that Jagan and his father hatched a conspiracy to defraud the government and that the state government granted favours to certain firms and individuals who made investments in Jagan’s businesses as part of a quid pro quo arrangement.

Sources said there is likelihood of Srinivasan being summoned again in the next few days.

It is learnt that when the CBI asked Srinivasan about the investment made by his company in Jagan’s firm, he is reported to have told the agency that it was for ‘’purely business interest’’ and there was no quid pro quo arrangement.

The agency had already questioned the then Irrigation Minister and present IT minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah for over eight hours as the GOs were issued during his tenure.