IRS Officer Jasti Wins Over Jagan In HC

After forming the government in 2019, AP CM Jagan focused more on bureaucrats who worked closely with the previous TDP government. SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao and IRS officer Jasti Krishna Kishore are some of the names.

IRS officer Krishna Kishore acts as Economic Development Board (EDB) CEO in the TDP government. On December 13th, 2019 Krishna Kishore was suspended by the Jagan government based on the report of the Industries, Infrastructure, Investment, and Commerce department. The AP government alleged that as EDB CEO Krishna Kishore took decisions in personal capacity and was involved in irregularities.

Not stopping here, the AP government went on to file criminal cases against Krishna Kishore. Against his suspension and these cases, Krishna Kishore approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). The Hyderabad bench of CAT found no fault with Krishna Kishore and revoked the suspension. Post CAT decision, Krishna Kishore received a promotion from the union government.

And the cases filed against Krishna Kishore landed in AP High Court. On Tuesday the High Court quashed all the cases lodged against the IRS officer and the court made interesting observations. Apparently Krishna Kishore shares good association with former CBI JD Lakshminarayana who investigated Jagan’s disproportionate assets case. Also as an Income Tax officer, Krishna Kishore summoned notices to Jagathi Publications owned by Jagan.

The AP High Court opined that taking Krishna Kishore’s associations and actions into consideration, Jagan government suspended him in December 2019. The court did not find any irregularities in Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) when Krishna Kishore was the CEO and his suspension was purely at vested interests.

This is another setback for CM Jagan and his government should stop going after bureaucrats who worked extensively for the development of Amaravati. Will the latest verdict of the High Court bring a change in Jagan’s approach towards bureaucrats?