YSRC chief attack case: Court sends accused to NIA custody

VIJAYAWADA: In a significant development in the case of the rooster knife attack on YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at Visakhapatnam International Airport on October 25 last year, NIA Special Court in Vijayawada on Friday sent the accused Janepalli Srinivasa Rao (29) into the custody of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for a week.

The NIA officials brought the accused Srinivasa Rao to Vijayawada from Vizag on Thursday night. In the morning session on Friday, the accused was produced before the special court in the Vijayawada Metropolitan Court Complex near the temporary High Court. While hearing the case petition submitted by the NIA, the special court magistrate sent the accused into two weeks of judicial remand till January 25.

In the afternoon session, the decision was revised when the NIA officials sought the court to give them the custody of the accused. After hearing the appeal, the special court magistrate gave the custody of the accused to the NIA, NIA sources said.

In the custody orders, the special court gave strict directions to the NIA officials that they should not conduct third-degree treatment on the accused and take his lawyer’s assistance, if needed, during questioning.

The accused Srinivas Rao will be in the investigating agency’s custody till January 18 and later will be shifted to Vijayawada sub-jail.On December 31 last year, the Union home ministry handed over the investigation into the attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy in the VIP lounge of the airport to the investigating agency. Based on a complaint lodged by a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official, the NIA registered an FIR on January 1 and took up the investigation into the case.

In the orders from Union Home ministry,  it is also mentioned that the present investigating agency (SIT) to submit all the material and other evidence to the NIA. Though the SIT officials were reluctant to share the information at first, they later submitted all the proof pertaining to the Jagan attack case to the investigating agency after they approached the local court in Visakhapatnam.