CBI Gets His Custody For Six Days
Hyderabad: The CBI on Thursday effected the first high-profile arrest in the Jagan assets case by taking excise minister Mopidevi Venkataramana into custody and charging him with criminal conspiracy, fraud, criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts , specifically pertaining to the Vanpic deal. Soon after, Mopidevi was produced before the CBI court at Nampally and remanded in judicial custody till June 7. However, the CBI was given custody for the first six days beginning Thursday evening during which period the minister will be confined to Dilkusha Guest House, the CBI’s make-shift office.
Mopidevi was arrested two hours after he appeared for questioning for the second successive day at Dilkusha Guest House. As if on cue, an aide of the excise minister handed over his resignation to chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy who in turn forwarded it to Raj Bhavan.
Within minutes after the excise minister’s arrest was flashed by TV channels, his supporters in his native Guntur district went on the offensive and damaged about 10 vehicles, destroyed furniture at a couple of government offices and attacked a police sub-inspector with one loyalist attempting immolation.
In protest against the arrest, his hometown of Nizampatnam and Repelle assembly constituency that he represents observed a spontaneous bandh on Thursday and is slated to hold another on Friday.
Soon after the arrest, the Congress distanced itself from Mopidevi, a pointer to the likely CBI action against the five other ministers who are linked to the Jagan assets case, namely Dharmana Prasada Rao, Sabita Indra Reddy, J Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Kanna Lakshminarayana.
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