Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy perhaps was not expecting his arrest on Sunday.
Before proceeding to the Dilkusha Guest House - CBI's camp office - on Sunday morning, he reportedly asked Deccan Chronicle for an interview at 6pm.
"I do not anticipate any arrest today; tomorrow (Monday) I’ll have to attend the CBI Court. I have been giving clarifications on whatever questions they (CBI officials) have put before me for the last two days,” Jagan had said when asked about a possible arrest, adding, 'if you come in the evening for an interview, you’ll get the details of today’s questions by the CBI officials and my replies'.
He said CBI officials had been quizzing him regarding flow of investments to his firms and the source of the same, 'for which I have given them detailed replies; for each paisa of investment, there’s a record, there is nothing like hiding facts'.
But at 7:20pm on Sunday, he was arrested.
YSR party leader J. Prabhakar Rao told reporters outside Dilkusha Guest House that the investigative agency had arrested Jagan.
Jagan remained inside the guest house since his arrest at 7.20 p.m while his mother Y.S. Vijayalakshmi, wife Bharathi and other family members sat on a protest outside demanding the CBI to give them the reason for the arrest.
Tension prevailed outside the guest house as the family members refused to leave and accused Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for getting him arrested to satisfy her ego.
Speaking to the media, Vijayalakshmi asked: “Was this the gift she (Congress president Sonia Gandhi) gave to the family of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who was responsible for bringing the Congress to power?”
“You want to make your son (Rahul Gandhi) Prime Minister, what would you like to do to my son?” she asked.
She even added that after recent developments, she was in doubt about the death of her husband YSR in the helicopter crash.
YSR, as Rajasekhara Reddy was popularly known, died in a helicopter crash on Sep 2, 2009, soon into his second term.
Jagan and 71 others were booked by CBI in August last year after Andhra Pradesh High Court ordered a CBI probe, acting on petitions filed by Congress leader P. Shankar Rao and some Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders.
Violence
Meanwhile, anticipating violent protests by Jagan's supporters, police are on high alert across the state.
Security was stepped up at the guest house, Jagan's residence, party offices of Congress and TDP and at other important places here.
Security was also tightened in the districts. Policemen were out on streets while leaders and activists of the YSR party were also arrested at some places. The state-owned road transport corporation stopped plying its buses in some districts as a precautionary measure.
YSR Congress has called for a shutdown across the state Monday to protest its leader's arrest. The party leaders appealed to people to observe the shutdown peacefully.