Hyderabad:
The Election Commission of India has refused to intervene in YSR Congress Party leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), party sources said.
The commission conveyed to YSR Congress Party President Vijayamma that since the matter was in court, it would not intervene, the sources said.
Mr Reddy was arrested on Sunday in a case of illegally acquiring assets, and sent to judicial custody for two weeks yesterday.
Ms Vijayamma, who is Mr Reddy's mother, had on Monday sent a letter to Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, seeking his intervention to direct the CBI to immediately release Jagan Mohan Reddy so that he could continue campaigning for the June 12 by-elections to one Lok Sabha and 18 state assembly constituencies.
Ms Vijayamma had complained that her son was arrested to keep him away from the party's campaigning. She had also alleged that the arrest was undemocratic and was aimed at helping the ruling Congress in the elections.
According to sources, the commission discussed her letter at a meeting presided over by Mr Quraishi and decided not to intervene.
Meanwhile, taking cognisance of the second chargesheet filed in the disproportionate assets case against Mr Reddy, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court issued a Prisoner on Transit warrant against him in Hyderabad today.
The court also issued summons to two other accused to appear before it on June 11. Summons were issued against his financial advisor V Vijay Sai Reddy (second accused in the case and currently out on bail) and Jagati Publications Pvt Ltd (JPPL), owned by the Kadapa MP, who were charged under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The CBI has so far filed three charge sheets in the disproportionate assets case (on March 31, April 23 and May 7) against Mr Reddy and others accusing him of getting investments of several crores from various firms into his own businesses as part of quid pro-quo, when his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.