HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to comply with Section 41 A of CrPC when it questions Kadapa MP and YSR Congress leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on May 25 in connection with the alleged illegal assets case in which he is accused number one.Justice B Chandra Kumar, while disposing of a petition by Jagan seeking to postpone the date of his appearance before the investigating agency, has directed the CBI to act in accordance with the CrPC section which makes it imperative that CBI should show the reasons if it arrests the accused after summoning him before it.CBI counsel P Kesava Rao has placed the original file of the CBI before the court in order to defend his argument that there was a need for the investigating agency to question the prime accused (Jagan) on May 25. Accordingly, a notice was served asking him to appear before it on the said date. Already, the CBI had arrested two other accused persons in the case--Nimmagadda Prasad and KV Brahmananda Reddy--and their custody with the CBI would end on May 27. Election campaigning cannot be grounds to postpone the date of appearance before the CBI, he noted.Senior counsel Sushil Kumar, on behalf of Jagan Mohan Reddy, argued that the CBI should not use the summons as a pretext to arrest his client. Besides, tempers were running high because of byelections on June 12. He urged the court to direct the CBI to call his client after election process is over (June 15). He said his client was prepared to appear before the CBI even on May 25 if the investigating agency informs about the time it would need to confront him and then allow him to electioneer.Jagan, in his petition moved under lunch motion before the vacation court, challenged the CBI’s action of issuing a notice to him on May 22 under Section 41A of CrPC calling upon him to appear personally before it on May 25.
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