Thaindian News

Hyderabad, May 9 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Wednesday said his government had no role in the freezing of bank accounts by the CBI of Sakshi group of companies owned by YSR Congress party leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

Talking to reporters in Visakhapatnam, he said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was probing as to how the investments flowed into the Sakshi group.

“The CBI is doing its work and there is no politics in this,” he said while reacting to Jaganmohan Reddy’s allegation that the freezing of bank accounts was a conspiracy by the state’s Congress government.

Kiran Kumar Reddy alleged that Jagan, as Jaganmohan Reddy is popularly known, was making such allegations to gain political mileage.

The chief minister clarified that there was no threat to freedom of press in the state. He remarked that those who indulged in wrong doings couldn’t escape punishment no matter how powerful they were.

The CBI, which is probing the alleged illegal assets of Jagan, Tuesday froze the bank accounts of his companies Jagati Publications, Indira TV and Janani Infrastructure.

Jaganmohan Reddy Wednesday filed a petition in a CBI court challenging the investigating agency’s move.

Jagati Publications, which publishes Telugu daily “Sakshi” and Indira Television, which runs the 24-hour Telugu news channel Sakshi, urged the CBI court here to defreeze their bank accounts.

The CBI action came under criticism from Congress leader and former minister Gade Venkat Reddy. He alleged that the investigating agency acted in haste.

Leader of opposition and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu said there was no link between freezing of accounts of “Sakshi” and freedom of press.

He accused Jagan of trying to escape from the investigations on the pretext of press freedom. “These companies were started with corrupt money and there is nothing unusual in freezing accounts of such companies,” he said.