Thaindian News

Hyderabad, May 23 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday questioned a cabinet minister of Andhra Pradesh in YSR Congress Party leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s illegal assets case.

Minister for excise Mopidevi Venkatramna was questioned by CBI officials for over six hours at Dilkusha Guest House, the camp office of the investigating agency. The minister told reporters that the CBI has asked him to appear again on Thursday.

The minister was questioned about the land allotments made to Vanpic company for a port project when he was minister for infrastructure and investment in the cabinet of Jaganmohan Reddy’s father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Soon after the questioning, the minister drove to the camp office of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to meet him.

This is the second time the CBI questioned Mopidevi in the case. The minister was earlier grilled by the CBI in March. This time, the questioning took place after the arrest of leading industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad, one of the promoters of the Vanpic project.

The investigating agency is currently questioning Prasad and a former bureaucrat K.V. Brahmananda Reddy.

The CBI has so far questioned three ministers in the state. Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy, who held the mines portfolio in YSR’s cabinet, was grilled by the agency May 18.

Last month, the CBI had questioned Minister for Roads and Buildings, Dharmana Prasada Rao.

They were among six ministers who were issued notices by the Supreme Court March 12, asking them why their role should not be probed with regard to the 26 government orders issued during the tenure of Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash in 2009.

The orders allegedly benefited certain companies in the form of lands and licenses, and in return, they invested in the firms owned by Jagan.