CBI names BCCI's Srinivasan in Jagan charge sheet

Indian cricket board chief N. Srinivasan has been named in one of the three charge sheets the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday filed in a special court here in the corruption case involving YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

In the charge sheet relating to India Cements, the CBI has also named Srinivasan, its managing director, as the accused number three.

Srinivasan stepped aside a few months ago as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president recently following spot fixing scandal in Indian Premier League (IPL).

The CBI had questioned him twice last year about the investments his company made into Jaganmohan Reddy's firms.

India Cements allegedly invested Rs.140 crore into Jagan's businesses in return for the benefits it received from the then government of Jagan's father, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2009.

The CBI filed the charge sheets in the special court, naming 25 accused and charging them under various sections of Indian Penal Code

The charge sheets relate to India Cements, Penna Cements and Bharati Cements, the three companies which allegedly made quid pro quo investments in Jaganmohan Reddy's business.

Jagan, as the MP from Kadapa is popularly known, figures as the accused number one in all three charge sheets while his financial advisor Vijay Sai Reddy is the number two accused.

The investments were made into Bharati Cements and Jagati Publications owned by Jagan in return for the benefits India Cements received in the form of additional water allocation for its units in Andhra Pradesh.

The federal agency, however, has not named Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah in the charge sheet. Lakshmaiah, who was irrigation minister in Rajasekhara Reddy's cabinet, was also questioned last year with regard to the water allocation to India Cements.

With this the number of charge sheets filed in the case so far has gone up to eight. A CBI counsel told reporters that the remaining charge sheets would be file in two to three days.

Jagan, who is in jail since May last year, is facing charges of amassing wealth through quid pro quo deals when his father was chief minister from 2004 to 2009.