On 1 November, the CBI court will decide if YS Jaganmohan Reddy can be granted a permanent exemption from personal appearance in the cases in which he is the prime accused. Jagan had pleaded that as chief minister, he has many responsibilities and moreover, he will have to spare two days days to undertake this trip every Friday.
The CBI has opposed this vehemently, saying the accused being in a powerful position can influence witnesses and weaken the case against him.
In order to convince the judge that it will not be in the interest of Andhra Pradesh to have the CM travel every week, Jagan’s counsel said Rs 60 lakh would have to be spent during each visit to the court. The argument is that a cash-strapped state can hardly afford such high expenditure.
The irony is that Jagan travels to his Lotus Pond residence in Hyderabad quite often and the question being asked by the opposition TDP is about the expenditure that is incurred on these personal visits. In fact, on Friday when his counsel presented this argument, Jagan travelled to Hyderabad to attend the wedding reception of Medak SP Chandana Deepti, with Balaram Reddy, who is related to Jagan’s family.