Jagan Reddy’s 75-room palace stuns CBI into action

For the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials conducting a search operation at the lavish residence of Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at Lotus Pond in Hyderabad, it was a jaw-dropping sight. The 75-room residence completely knocked them out.

The officers were at Jagan’s residence in the hope of finding some key documents relating to the amassing of wealth by one of the richest MPs of the country.

“The CBI did not have an idea of the scale of the building. Theofficials quickly found out that the six members in the team would never be able to complete the search and inventorising of the building. So, more officers were sent into the building,” a source tracking the developments said.

Jagan’s residence is situated in a 32-acre spread, in the upmarket Banjara Hills area. Not many could enter the building since the raids on Jagan’s establishments began on Thursday morning as it was under a cover of tight security. But the sources said it was nothing less than a palace!

“It is spread in a place double the size of the international cricket stadium in Hyderabad,” the source said. It was also said that there was a plan to construct a helipad on the premises and Jagan was thinking of buying a helicopter. Unofficial estimates pegged the cost of the building including its interiors at close to Rs350 crore.

For the officers in the search team, it took them 10 hours to go through the building and record the inventory. “Even the bathrooms were searched,” the source said. However, getting into some of the rooms was not that easy for the CBI officers.
Family members of the son of former chief minister YS

Rajasekhara Reddy at first refused them entry into a prayer hall. It took some tough talking from VV Laxminarayana, joint director of the CBI in Hyderabad, to convince the family members including some women members of the family, to step aside.

Interestingly, Jagan was busy on his consolation tour (Odarpu Yatra) in Krishna district of the state while the CBI officials were busy recording the findings at his residence. 

“The entire building was video-recorded by the CBI officers,” the source said.

Jagan’s sister and YSR’s daughter Sharmila, her husband and an evangelist Anil Kumar, Jagan’s mother and YSR’s widow Vijaya Lakshmi were present at the residence at the time of the search. Sources said CBI officials questioned Vijaya Lakshmi and Br Anil Kumar, and that the family members were cooperating with the investigators.

What the search yielded was not known but apparently several incriminating documents and computer hard-discs were found in some of the rooms. It was following a direction from the Andhra Pradesh high court that the CBI swung into action to probe the allegations of amassing of wealth by the MP during the time his father was chief minister of the state.

It was alleged that the corporate entities and individuals who were allotted land for SEZs, mines and irrigation projects, pumped in kickbacks in the form of investments in Jagan’s businesses including the two media outfits - a Telugu news daily and a TV channel. The CBI filed an FIR in a special court in Hyderabad on Wednesday naming Jagan as a prime accused.

Various sections including 120B (criminal conspiracy) were slapped on Jagan by the CBI. “The CBI officers were unfair while conducting the searches. They had taken inventory of even the handkerchiefs and furniture in the house,” B Shobha Nagireddy, a follower of Jagan, said.