NIA files chargesheet in Jagan attack case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed a chargesheet in the case relating to the October 25 knife attack on YSR Congress Party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

The investigating agency filed the chargesheet against the accused J. Srinivas Rao in the NIA court here. It also submitted to the court a 22-page letter written by the accused to his friends.

The NIA conveyed to the court that its probe into the conspiracy angle would continue. The court directed its staff not to reveal the chargesheet or the letter to anyone till further orders.

The agency filed the chargesheet within a month after taking over the probe from Andhra Pradesh police on the direction of the Union Home Ministry.

NIA officials had last week completed the interrogation of the accused, who had attacked the Leader of Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly at Visakhapatnam Airport on October 25 last year.

Jagan, as the YSRCP leader is popularly known, was injured when Srinivas, a worker at the airport canteen, attacked him with a knife used in cockfights. Jagan was attacked as he was waiting to board a flight to Hyderabad.

Jagan, who sustained a cut on his left upper arm, continued his journey and got admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad.

After the attack, leaders of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) termed it as a ploy of YSRCP to gain public sympathy.

Jagan had refused to record his statement before the Andhra Pradesh Police saying he had no trust in agencies controlled by the state government.

YSRCP leaders had approached the Hyderabad High Court seeking a probe into the attack by a central agency. On the directions of the Union Home Ministry, the NIA booked a case on January 1 and took up the investigation.

--IANS

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