Jagan case: CBI questions Andhra minister Geetha Reddy

Hyderabad: The CBI on Tuesday night questioned Andhra Pradesh’s Major Industries Minister J Geetha Reddy in a disproportionate assets case involving YSR Congress party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy. The senior cabinet minister was questioned for two hours at her residence by a team of officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), sources said Wednesday.  Geetha Reddy was quizzed about the allotment of land to Lepakshi Knowledge Hub in Anantapur district. The allotment of 8,848 acres of land was made when she was holding the same portfolio in the government of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, father of Jaganmohan Reddy, who is in jail since May last year. It is one of the several alleged quid-pro-quo deals being probed by the CBI, which has alleged that Jaganmohan Reddy conspired with his father to dole out favours to certain firms and individuals which invested money in his business. Geetha Reddy is the fifth minister questioned by the CBI in connection with different aspects of the case. The Supreme Court had last year issued notice to six ministers with regard to 26 controversial orders issued by Rajasekhara Reddy’s government, which allegedly benefited Jaganmohan Reddy. Three of them have so far been named by the CBI in their chargesheets. One of them, Mopidevi Venkatramna, is in jail for more than a year. Sabitha Indra Reddy and Dharmana Prasada Rao resigned as home and roads & buildings ministers respectively in May after the CBI named them as accused. The CBI questioned them once again last week. Dharmana was grilled about the allotment of land to Lepakshi Knowledge Hub (LKH) as he was holding the revenue portfolio in Rajasekhara Reddy’s cabinet. LKH had signed an MoU with the industries department in February 2009 for setting up a global knowledge hub by providing integrated infrastructure support to a range of activities, including education clusters, science and technology parks, medical, aviation and aerospace and IT parks. In October last year, the government asked the industries department to initiate measures to cancel the land allotment. IANS