Probe into attack against Jagan; HC notice to AP Police, Centre

The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Andhra Pradesh Police and the Union government on a petition by YSR Congress chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seeking a direction to the state government to transfer the probe into the recent attack on him to an independent agency.

A division bench, headed by Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan, also directed the Special Investigating Team probing the case to file its report in a sealed cover before the High Court within two weeks.

Jagan had moved the court on October 31 with a plea that the probe be entrusted to any appropriate independent agency not under the control of the Andhra Pradesh government.

When the plea came up for hearing Tuesday, the court ordered issuance of notices to Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Visakhapatnam Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and the Union government on the issue of airport security, among others, and directed them to file their counter affidavits.

The court posted the matter after two weeks for further hearing.

On October 25, Jagan was injured on the left shoulder when he was attacked by a man with a small knife, at the airport in Visakhapatnam.

The assailant, J Srinivas, was employed at the airport canteen, police had said.

Jagan, leader of the opposition in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, submitted Tuesday that he has no confidence in the probe being conducted by the state government and that it ought to be conducted by an independent and impartial agency which was not under the government.

Alleging that the attack on him was part of a "criminal conspiracy" to eliminate him, Jagan said it indicated a clear effort to "dilute" the investigation and "divert" it in the wrong direction.

He alleged that there was a conspiracy angle beyond doubt, going by the sequence of events at the airport and the manner in which the state police and the chief minister had been trying to "dilute" the incident by doling out "incoherent and uncorroborated" details to the media, even before the probe began.