Freezing of accounts by CBI undemocratic: Jagan Reddy

Hyderabad: YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy has hit out at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), saying that it has been hounding him with no proof. Calling the freezing of the Sakshi TV accounts undemocratic, Jagan said, "After nine months of probe, the CBI has got nothing."

"I'm not fighting the Congress, it's the Congress that is hitting me all out. The Congress has formed a cartel along with Chandrababu Naidu and other media houses," he added.

This came just hours before a Hyderabad court hears Sakshi TV's appeal against the freezing of its accounts.

YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy said that the CBI had been hounding him for years with no proof against him.

Jaganmohan Reddy's three companies, including Sakshi TV, on Wednesday had moved court seeking defreezing of their accounts to carry out day-to-day business even as the agency's move drew flak from scribes.

In three separate petitions filed in the special CBI court in Hyderabad, representatives of Indira Television Ltd, which runs Telugu news channel Sakshi TV, Jagati Publications Ltd, publisher of 'Sakshi' Telugu newspaper and Janani Infrastructure Pvt Ltd alleged that the the action by CBI was aimed at muzzling the voice of print and electronic media and to cause political advantage to the rivals of Jagan.

The CBI, investigating into alleged disproportionate assets of the YSR Congress chief, has filed three chargesheets in the case and on Wednesday approached banks for freezing the accounts of the three companies, including the two media entities.

Following the development, amounts to tune of Rs 2.85 crore in current accounts maintained by the firms in different banks here besides fixed deposit of Rs 103 crore stood frozen.

In the thick of campaigning for June 12 by-elections, the Jagan issue has generated a lot of heat in the political circles in Andhra Pradesh with the ruling Congress seeking to wash its hands off.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said neither the Congress nor the state government have any connection with the CBI inquiry against Jaganmohan.

(With additional information from PTI)

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