Jagan's wife appeals for PM's intervention

HYDERABAD: Jailed YSR Congress party leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's wife Y S Bharathi Reddy Sunday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and stop his victimization and harassment.

Jagan, as the MP from Kadapa is popularly known, is in jail for nearly a year in a disproportionate assets case.

In a letter to the PM, the copies of which were released to media Sunday, Bharathi alleged that the joint director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the investigation officer was deliberately delaying the case to keep her husband behind bars with political motives.

"I have strong reason to believe that it is the intention of the Congress-run CBI to keep my husband in custody until the general elections, thereby hoping to gain political mileage," she said.

"Let this nation remember you as one who stood for the rights of people and not as one who remained silent while injustice was being meted out to the memory of a man who served the nation for over three decades and was one of your own party's foremost soldiers - the late YSR," Bharathi said referring to her late father-in-law Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

Alleging that the case was not be pursued on merit, she pointed out that immediately after last week's Supreme Court order directing the CBI to complete the probe in four months, the CBI lawyer indicated that the time limit was not binding on CBI and that they will find ground for seeking a time extension.

She also sent a DVD containing video footage of CBI lawyer's interaction with the national media. Bharathi Reddy, who heads 'Sakshi' media group, also dashed off a letter to CBI director, saying the probe is motivated and biased.

In the letter to the PM, she gave a detailed account of case and pointed out that during the period under investigation (2004-09), Jagan had nothing to do with the then Congress government headed by his father.

"He was neither an MP nor an MLA and we were living in Bangalore since 2001. Armed with sincerity and very good business mind, he initiated a few projects and also invested wisely in hydro power projects," she wrote.

"While the probes against Robert Vadra and Dimple Yadav were dropped because they were private individuals during the period of investigation. I would like to ask you how is Jagan any different from them? He was also a private individual, so why this selective victimization? Is it because he chose to leave the Congress party?" she asked.

Bharathi defended the investments made in Sakshi media house and also Vanpic, a mega port and infrastructure project cleared by YSR. She clarified that Sakshi is no fly-by-night dummy company used as a conduit for ill-gotten money from gullible investors.

"Today, within 5 years of its launch, Sakshi is the number 7 newspaper in the country with a total readership of 143.2 lakhs. All who have invested with us have doubled their investment and all their share certificates are with them and they are free to sell them to whomever they choose."