HYDERABAD: A day after the CBI tightened the squeeze on Jagan Mohan Reddy, representatives of his media companies rushed to court to have the freeze of their bank accounts lifted.A total of Rs 113 crore belonging to Jagati Publications, Indira Television and Janani Infrastructure now lies iced in various banks, including Rs 103 crore in fixed deposits.Using their employees’ families as argument fodder, the companies petitioned the CBI court that their operations would come to a standstill and no less than 20,000 persons or families, employed directly or indirectly, put to privation if the freeze were not rescinded.While citing this pretext, the media companies have opened alternative current accounts to ensure that there is no problem with transactions since remittances will flow into the accounts every day.However, further trouble seems to await the Jagan media companies with the CBI reportedly poised to seek the court’s permission to attach their properties sooner or later.In separate petitions filed under Section 451 r/w 457 of the CrPC, the three companies made a case for defreezing the accounts immediately.Sakshi publisher Jagati Publications, represented by its financial director Y Eshwara Prasad Reddy, said in the petition, “The newspaper incurs an operational expenditure of Rs 35 core per month.This includes Rs 8 crore per month paid as salaries to employees, Rs 20 crore per month for newsprint and Rs 7 crore towards administrative overheads.Unless and until the accounts are defreezed, the company would suffer grave prejudice besides loss of reputation and consequential deprivation of employees of their livelihood.’’ from: P1Moreover, Jagati claimed to have already issued cheques amounting to Rs 3.13 crore to vendors and service providers. ``These cheques may be presented to banks for clearance and, if they are returned for any reason, the company would suffer a grave loss of reputation,’’ the petition said.The petition questioned the basis for CBI’s allegation of fraud in the computation of Jagati’s valuation and drew a comparison with rival newspaper Eenadu. It said the latter, despite having accumulated losses of Rs 1,600 crore anda circulation of 11 lakh, valued itself at Rs 7,000 crore and hefted a premium of Rs 5,28,630 per share. Jagati, in contrast, was valued at Rs 3,500 crore for which it extracted a reasonable premium of Rs 350 per share. “There was no investigation into the premium computed by Eenadu. This clearly evidences the malafide intentions of the CBI, which it is working at the behest of the rivals of Jagan Mohan Reddy,’’ the petition said.Claiming to stand second in the Telugu newspaper industry with a circulation of 14 lakh per day, Jagati Publications said newspaper publishing is a highly sensitive business in which even the slightest disruption in rolling out a newspaper would severely damage its reputation and circulation. ``The (CBI’s) action is aimed at muzzling the voice of Sakshi to yield a political advantage to the rivals of Jagan Mohan Reddy,’’ it said.In its petition, Indira Television, owner of the Sakshi TV channel, informed the court that it incurs an op cost of Rs 3 crore monthly, including Rs 1.60 crore staff salaries and transmission and communication expenses.Janani Infrastructure, which owns the premises from which Sakshi TV and newspaper operate, said two of its accounts, including one in the Jubilee Hills branch of the Indian Overseas Bank holding no more than Rs 45.99 lakh, have been put under freeze.Responding to these petition, the CBI sought time to file its counter-affidavit but the defence insisted that the case ought to be taken up immediately. So the court asked CBI to file its affidavit on Thursday.Apart from the companies’ own petition, two advocates, P N Arun Kumar and R Venkatesham, approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to intervene in the matter. ``Thousands of employees are dependent on the companies,’’ they pointed out. SHRC asked the joint director of CBI and the labour commissioner to file a report by June 6.
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