Andhra Pradesh HC adjourns Naidu's FIR quash petition to Sept. 19

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday held a hearing on the quash petition relating to the FIR filed by the AP CID against TD chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu in connection with the AP skill development scam. It adjourned the case for the next hearing to September 19, when the state government sought time to file a counter.

A single judge bench headed by Justice Srinivasa Reddy heard the petition seeking quashing of FIR and also suspension of ACB special court’s order imposing judicial remand to Naidu.

Naidu’s counsel and Supreme Court senior advocate Siddarth Luthra argued that under Section 17 (A) of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment)  Act, 2018, no police officer should conduct any inquiry into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant without taking prior approval from the Governor and also argued that Section 409 of IPC dealing with criminal breach of trust by a public servant where the term of imprisonment to be 10 years or more, was not applicable in the case of Naidu.

State government counsel and additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar argued that it would be enough if the Assembly Speaker was informed about the arrest of Naidu since he was a member of Assembly and ruled out the need to get prior approval from the Governor under Section 17 (A) of PC Act and said that they informed the Speaker.

 Later, the government’s counsel sought some time to file its counter. Accordingly, the court after hearing both the parties adjourned the matter to be heard on September 19.

Naidu’s counsel also sought suspension of the ACB court’s order imposing 14 days’ judicial remand to Naidu.

In a related development, as AP CID filed a petition seeking custody of Naidu for further probe in the skill development scam involving `371 crore, Naidu’s counsel submitted to the court that ACB court was insisting on the petitioner (Naidu) to file the counter. However, the additional advocate general agreed not to insist on filing a counter.

In view of this, the court directed the ACB court not to insist on the petition herein for filing the counter up to September 18.

In another case of alleged irregularities in the alignment of Inner Ring Road at Amaravati wherein Chandrababu Naidu, P. Narayana and others were the accused, another bench of the High Court heard the bail petition moved by Naidu and adjourned the case for the next hearing to September 19.

On the other hand, Naidu’s counsel Siddarth Luthra met Naidu at the Central Prison in Rajahmundry and briefed him about the ongoing legal developments pertaining to the cases he was involved in. Earlier, he tweeted by saying that, "When all has been tried, yet justice is not in sight, it is then right to pick up the sword, it is then right to fight," quoting the Zafarnama written by Guru Gobind Singh to Aurangzeb.