The Andhra Pradesh high court on Wednesday will specifically look into whether there are any provisions in law to grant permission to incarcerated YSR Congress party president Jagan Mohan Reddy to carry on campaigning for the upcoming byelections after his 14-day judicial custody gets over after which the CBI can take him in custody.
“We are a democracy and we cannot curtail a candidate or a president of a party to canvas his views in an election,” said Justice B. Chandra Kumar on Tuesday. Keeping in view this basic democratic principle, the court intends to seek assistance from the counsels of both the parties, added the judge.
Jagan was sent to judicial custody after the CBI arrested him on Sunday in the illegal assets case.
While reserving orders on petitions filed by Jagathi Publications and Jagan’s family auditor and co-accused in the case, Vijaya Sai Reddy, challenging the order of the special CBI court in taking cognisance of the CBI’s first chargesheet in the assets case, Justice Kumar asked the counsels of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Mr Vijaya Sai whether police custody could be granted after the 14-day judicial custody.
The judge said that without going into the merits and facts of the case, the question would be dealt by the court on Wednesday in the post-lunch session.
CrPC mandates the investigation agency to seek police custody of an accused in the first 14 days; after that the investigation agency has no power to move application for police custody. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s judicial custody will expire on June 10 and the judge wanted to know if it was permissible by law to grant police custody after that date.
He also wanted to know whether the law permitted the court to grant interim bail to Jagan to carry on campaigning after which the Central Bureau of Investigation could take him into police custody for interrogation.
The judge asked the counsels to come back on Wednesday with relevant material to assist the court in this issue.