YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s Jagathi publications has moved the CBI court on Wednesday seeking to defreeze their bank accounts. The Court has asked the CBI to file a reply by Thursday.

Earlier, reacting to the CBI’s closure of the Current Accounts of the Group’s organisations, the Sakshi group called it an attempt to gag the media and free speech. It denied the charge that Saakshi is being used to park ill-gotten wealth.

“Freezing of media company accounts is an attempt to gag the media and free speech. CBI’s charge that Sakshi is being used to park ill gotten wealth is false. This act will adversely affect the livelihood of over 20,000 people. The assets case is pending before various courts including the Supreme Court. Sakshi is one of the largest selling newspapers in India with a daily circulation of 14.5 lakhs Sakshi TV is a leading news channel. We request other media organisations to protest this act,” it said.

CBI freezes bank accounts of Jagan firms

The CBI further closed in on YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy by freezing the bank accounts of three key companies running a Sakshi newspaper, Sakshi television channel and infrastructure business on Tuesday.

A day after the court issued summons to YS Jagan to appear before it on May 28, the CBI sent notices to the State Bank of India (Banjara Hills branch) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Jubilee Hills) asking their managers to “freeze and prohibit all operations” of the accounts of Jagati Publications Limited (‘Sakshi’), Indira Television Ltd (‘Sakshi TV’) and Janani Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. under Section 102 of the Cr. PC.

The notices were sent by Superintendent of Police, CBI, H. Venkatesh, who is the chief investigating officer in the illegal assets case against Mr. Reddy, now being heard in the special court for CBI cases.