YSR told Acharya to favour some firms: VHR

HYDERABAD: Brushing aside the YSR Congress leaders’ allegation that the Congress high command and the central government resorted to vendetta against their leader and Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao said on Saturday that Jagan was trying to escape from the CBI case by dragging the Congress leadership into the controversy.Regardless of the cabinet decisions, his father and former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had allocated Bayyaram mines to his son-in-law Anil Kumar, he alleged.Rao further alleged the former chief minister had directly told the then APIIC managing director BP Acharya over phone to benefit some private companies. “Acharya and another official, Parthasaradhy, had worked surreptitiously to loot the state. All facts will come out after completion of the CBI enquiry, and action should be taken against those, including government officials, who will be found guilty,’’ he said.“Jagan had earlier claimed that he was not aware of the happenings taking place in Andhra Pradesh since he was doing business in Bengaluru. He now says that the Centre had received bribes. How has he come to know with whom his father had talked to? He is trying to escape from the case by dragging the party high command into the controversy,” he alleged.PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana clearly said that the cabinet ministers cannot be held liable for behind-the-screen deals, he observed.