Hyderabad: Referring to the allegations against several politicians for their involvement in the liquor scam, a division Bench of the AP High Court said that after the probe, the ACB had to issue FIRs against them if it found any prima facie evidence. The Bench also declared as illegal the practice adopted by the state government seeking explanations from the tainted officers based on the final report prepared by the ACB and referring the explanation to the Law department before sanctioning permission to prosecute the officer. While dictating the order, the chief justice said that the government could not look into the defense offered by the accused officer and this was the exclusive function of the courts alone. He added that this practice could not continue.
Referring to the pending ACB cases against accused officers awaiting sanction from the government for prosecution, the Bench directed that the government should take a final decision on all pending cases within three months. The Bench granted the interim order in a PIL filed by O.M. Debara, a resident of the city, seeking more autonomy to the ACB and also to monitor the investigation of the liquor scam case. Ravi Kiran Rao, special counsel for the ACB, told the court that the ACB had found no evidence on the involvement of any political leader in the liquor syndicates. It may be mentioned that there were allegations against several politicians belonging to different political parties, including PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana, for their involvement in liquor syndicates on benami names. In June 2012, the ACB had issued notices to Mahbubabad MLA Kavitha, Telugu Desam MLA from Sattupalli, Venkata Veeraiah, and Visakhapatnam (East) MLA Rama Krishna Babu, asking them to appear before the ACB office for questioning. The ACB had also served notices to former MLA Chenna Kesava Reddy from Yemmiganur, Youth Congress leader from Srikakulam and son of roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasad Rao, D. Ram Manohar Naidu, and CPI leader and former MLC Puvvada Nageswara Rao on allegations of taking bribes from liquor syndicates.
