ACB objections rejected

Hyderabad: Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday rejected the objections raised by the TS Anti Corruption Bureau while hearing the quash petition by Jerusalem Mattaiah, one of the accused in the cash-for-vote scam.

The judge was holding the in camera proceedings with audio and video recording to hear the quash petition.

It is learnt that while placing a memo on the maintainability of the plea, K. Ramakrishna Reddy, TS advocate-general appearing for the ACB, contended that in view of the chargesheet filed by the ACB in this case, the plea of the petitioner becomes infructuous and there was no justification in hearing the case.

Counsel appearing for Mattaiah pointed out that though the ACB has filed the chargesheet before the trial court, it did not take cognizance of the chargesheet till date.

While contending that initiation of prosecution against the petitioner itself was wrong, counsel said that till the trial court takes cognizance of the chargesheet, the appellate courts have the power to hear the quash petition.

Rejecting the memo of the ACB, the judge reportedly made it clear that he would hear the case and posted the matter to January 20, 2016.