Court reserves order on Jagan's bail plea till tomorrow

The Court of Principal Special Judge for CBI cases posted the matter to tomorrow after hearing arguments from the defence and prosecution.

Opposing Jagan's bail plea, CBI senior counsel Ashok Bhan said, "This is a case of a handful of white-collar criminals who are trying to subvert the constitution."

"He (Jagan) is among the over 100 MPs facing various criminal charges, and just because he is a party (YSR Congress) president... He cannot claim bail," Bhan contended and alleged that funds were funnelled through hawala transactions and brought back into his businesses as investments.

"Land of the poor was given to big people in the name of SEZs for a song. He misused power by influencing his father (late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, former CM of Andhra Pradesh)," Bhan further said.

Refuting to allegation that CBI was acting on the directions of Congress, Bhan said in the CWG scam a sitting (Congress) MP was arrested while Kanimozhi (DMK MP) belonging to an ally of the UPA was also arrested in an another case and sought to know how could they say CBI acted out of extraneous consideration.

"CBI is the most honest organisation in the country," he asserted.

The defence which had earlier requested that the YSR Congress chief be granted bail to enable him to campaign for June 12 by-polls in the state later sought an interim bail for Jagan till June 10 with an understanding that he would surrender himself on June 11.

However, CBI did not agree to it saying Jagan is not a candidate in the elections.

The defence further said that, "The arrest (of Jagan) is malafide and he never interfered with any investigation or influenced any witness at any point of time. The arrest is illegal and liable to be set aside."

Jagan, who was arrested by CBI on May 27 is under judicial remand till June 11 and lodged at the Chanchalguda Central Prison here. The CBI has so far filed three chargesheets against him and others under various provisions of the IPC.