The Andhra Pradesh High Court has stayed an order by the CBI special court to freeze bank accounts of firms of Kadapa MP, Mr Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, in the illegal assets case.
In its interim orders issued on Wednesday, the High Court allowed Jagathi Publications, Indira Television which runs Sakshi daily and Sakshi TV respectively to operate the accounts and use the revenue from advertisements for paying salaries of the employees.
Transaction statements
It had also directed them to submit monthly statements of transactions and not to attempt sale or lease of the properties identified by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Jagathi Publications, Indira Television and Janani Infra had also submitted a guarantee for Rs 9 crore to the court. The CBI froze the bank accounts of the three two weeks ago.
The High Court had also dismissed a petition seeking exemption from attending before the CBI on May 25 and asked him to attend in person for questioning.
Meanwhile, the CBI quizzed Mr Mopedevi Venkataramana, Minister for Excise, Government of Andhra Pradesh, in connection with the illegal assets case of Mr Reddy.
The Minister, who came to the CBI's temporary office here at around 10.30 a.m., was questioned for about seven hours along with Mr Nimmagadda Prasad, industrialist and founder of Matrix Labs and Mr K. Brahmananda Reddy, former special secretary in the Infrastructure Department who were arrested last week. He is being questioned on his role in the Vanpic business deal which was finalised during his tenure as the Minister for Investments and Infrastructure about four years ago, according to sources.