CBI the prime newsmaker in Andhra Pradesh

Businessmen, bureaucrats, politicians, judges and media barons. All of them are under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Andhra Pradesh.

The country's premier investigation agency has now become the prime newsmaker in the state where people, till a few years ago, hardly noticed its presence.

Though it had probed various cases in the past, the agency first caught the attention of a large section of people here in 2009 - when it started investigating the massive accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services.

Its prominence grew after it took up the investigation of other high-profile cases in the state. These included the alleged quid pro quo case of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Kadapa MP and son of former chief minister YS Rajaseskhar Reddy, and alleged illegal iron ore mining by Obulapauram Mining Company belonging to Karnataka politician, Gali Janardhana Reddy.

And, by the time it arrested powerful politicians, industrialists and IAS officers in connection with the cases and put them behind bars, the CBI had become a household name in the state.

In the process, the agency also had a brush with the judiciary when it arrested an additional judge here for allegedly taking a bribe for granting bail to Janardhana Reddy.

The agency's connection with the state police came in the form of disclosure of the phone call record of Vasireddi Chandrabala, a friend of CBI joint direct VV Lakshminarayana, who is probing these high-profile cases. While an investigation is on into this episode, it was reported that the station house officer of a local police station had helped a reporter of a Telugu newspaper get the call data.

The latest case to come under the CBI in the state is that of debt-laden Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL).

Once a flourishing media firm, DCHL now has a debt liability of about Rs 4,000 crore. The CBI has begun a probe into the media company following a complaint by Canara Bank of irregularities in DCHL balance sheet.