Moments that made CBI JD sweat

VV Lakshminarayana, Joint Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Hyderabad.

His mere presence makes wrong-doers sweat. But on Monday it was the turn of CBI joint director VV Lakshminarayana to sweat, albeit  for a different reason. In what would have been a nightmarish experience for him, Lakshminarayana and a few others faced tense moments after the lift in which they were moving got stuck in the Nampally Criminal Court complex. The JD, who strictly follows time and does not believe in wasting even a moment without a reason,  was forced to spend 10 minutes of his valuable time in the elevator. Around 1.25 pm, after finishing the arguments in the Jagan case, Lakshminarayana, CBI deputy legal advisor B Ravindranath, additional solicitor- general of India Ashok Bhan, a woman advocate and four securitymen were going down in the lift from the third floor of the court building to get back to their office. As they were engrossed in a discussion, the lift suddenly got stuck and came to a stop between the first and ground floors. The investigating and legal luminaries thought initially that power supply had snapped but later learnt that there was no disruption of power supply.Even as the policemen escorting Lakshminarayana pressed the emergency alarm button inside the lift, no one heard or bothered about it. ‘’They spent more than 10 minutes inside the lift. Though the fan in the lift was working, they appeared tense for some moments,’’ an eyewitness told Express.With no help coming their way, the securitymen forcibly opened the door and jumped out. They quickly brought a chair from the court’s administrative office and helped Lakshminarayana, Ashok Bhan, Ravindranath and the advocate descend from the lift one by one. It is learnt that the lift came to an abrupt halt because it was overloaded. The lift’s capacity is eight but it was carrying ten persons at that time. It was not the first time that the two lifts in the court got malfunctioned. Earlier, when mediapersons were boarding a lift, it got stuck in the middle due to power cuts. The other also got stuck due to heavier. On that occasion too mediapersons had forcibly opened the doors and jumped out to safety. 

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com