After 5 years, Srinu gets bail in ‘Kodi-Kathi’ case

The Andhra Pradesh High Court granted bail to Janipalli Srinivas Rao (Srinu) on Thursday after over five years in jail. Srinu is the accused in the case of attack on YSRC president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy with a ‘Kodi Katti’ (rooster knife) at the Visakhapatnam airport. The court told Srinu not to speak to the media or anybody else on the case.
A Division Bench of the AP 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 petitioner’s advocate argued that 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, allegedly attacked Jagan, who was the leader of Opposition then, with Kodi Kathi. 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 two-and-a-half months from May 23 to 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, fetched huge mileage to Jagan in the 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.