After languishing in jail for over five years, Janipalli Srinivas Rao alias Srinu, the 32-year-old man who attacked YSR Congress party president and present Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy with “Kodi Kathi” at Visakhapatnam airport, was granted bail on Thursday.
A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, comprising Justices U. Durga Prasad Rao and Kiranmayee Mandava, on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a criminal appeal for bail filed by Srinu in the Kodi Kathi case.
The bench delivered its judgement on Thursday, granting bail to Srinu, but asked him not to speak to the media or anybody else on the case.
The petitioner’s advocate argued that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was not appearing in the court to testify as the victim, and it was causing an inordinate delay in adjudicating the case. After hearing arguments made on behalf of the parties, the court reserved the case for orders.
Srinivasa Rao wanted the High Court to enlarge him on bail by setting aside the orders of the Visakhapatnam NIA Court, which turned down his bail plea by citing certain provisions of Section 6A(b) of Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act of 1982.
On October 25, 2018, Srinu, a small-time worker at a restaurant in Visakhapatnam airport, attacked YSR Congress Party president Reddy, who was the leader of opposition, with “kodi kathi” (a small knife used in cockfights).
Srinu was immediately apprehended by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at the airport and sent to judicial remand later in the day.
For a two and a half months between May 23 and August 6, 2019, Srinivas had been confined to the barracks of Rajahmundry central jail, before being shifted to Visakhapatnam central jail in July this year.
The incident, which triggered a major political uproar in the state then, fetched huge mileage to Jagan in May 2019 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
The case, which was initially probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police, was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The trial had been conducted in the Special Court for NIA cases in Vijayawada since January 2019. The NIA filed the charge sheet on January 23, 2019.
After a thorough investigation that went on for nearly four years, the agency told the court on April 13 this year that there was no conspiracy behind the knife attack on Jagan.
The NIA countered the argument of the chief minister that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the attack on him and urged the court to dismiss his petition. On July 25, the NIA court dismissed Jagan’s plea for a probe into a larger conspiracy.
