Is Jagan a Suspect or an Accused?

Responding to Jagan's petition appealing the court not to grant his custody to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by stating that he is neither the director nor the chairman of Jagathi Publications, the ED's counsel has clarified that it wanted to record the statement of the Kadapa MP only as a suspect and not as an accused in the illegal assets case.

ED filed a petition in CBI court few days back seeking the custody of Jagan to question him over the hawala transactions and the funds flown into Jagathi Publications violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) laws. Jagan's counsel filed a counter petition stating that his client had resigned as diretor and chairman of Jagathi Publications on February 1, 2011 itself, and so there is no need of granting his custody to ED.

The ED, however, made it clear that it wanted to record Jagan's statement as the then chairman and director of Jagathi Publications. It also reported to the court that an offense had been committed by the MP and the facts need to be brought out. The next hearing of the case was posted to July 6th.