Order on defreeze petition reserved
The special CBI court on Thursday reserved to May 14 its order on petitions filed by Jagati Publication, Indira Television Ltd and Janani Infrastructure Ltd, owned by YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The firms challenged CBI’s action to freeze their bank accounts, even as CBI contended that it did it “solely in the interest of the state”. The CBI counsel said, “We are not influenced by anyone. As per the audit report, Rs 1,172 crore is share investment, of which only Rs 249 crore is left as of March 31, 2012 as per the balance sheet. What if this amount is also gone? Hence we had to freeze the accounts.”
Counsels appearing for Jagati and two other firms submitted that they were ready to offer any immovable property as guarantee to defreeze the accounts. Indira TV’s counsel said, “We are an independent firm and not a single rupee is parked. I am a third party in this (case). The timing of this action suggests it is done with malicious intention.” Taking the same line, Janani Company’s counsel said, “Even in 2G case CBI did not venture to freeze accounts of telecom companies.” Mr Uma Maheswara Rao, counsel for Jagati, said CBI is working on “hypothetical interpretations” and its reasons to freeze accounts revolved around “assumptions”.
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