Hyderabad: The High Court on Friday granted respite to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by staying the order passed by the principal special judge for Anti-Corruption Bureau cases in the cash-for-vote scam.
While granting stay on all further proceedings in the complaint of the MLA, the judge posted the case after eight weeks and directed counsels for the MLA and ACB to file their counter affidavits.
The judge made it clear that the stay was not applicable to the main case that had been registered based on a complaint by Anglo-Indian nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson and proceedings in that case may go on.
Earlier Siddhartha Luthra, senior counsel from the Supreme Court, appearing for Mr Naidu, had contended that the YSRC MLA had no locus to file the complaint before the trial court and had done so with political motives.
Mr Ramakrishna Reddy had no connection with the crime and he was neither an informant nor a witness to the crime, he said. Asked by the judge, senior counsel Ravi Kiran Rao of the ACB told the court that they had filed a memo before the ACB court informing that no fresh FIR was required in this case.
The judge asked how could the ACB file a memo when the court had asked it to investigate. Whether right or wrong, as the court had issued an order, it was the responsibility of the probing agency to investigate into the matter, the judge said.
He questioned the ACB whether it was expecting another order on its memo from the ACB court. Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy, counsel for the YSRC MLA, submitted that they had filed the complaint against Mr Naidu seeking action under the Prevention of Corruption Act for abetting others for receiving bribe in this case, not under the Section 156 (3).
When he tried to cite an order of the Supreme Court wherein the apex court had barred intervention of others in corruption cases in accordance with Section 19(3) of the PC Act, the judge prevented him stating, “If you cite one orde
Will move Supreme Court to get stay on probe vacated: YSRC MLA
YSR Congress MLA A. Ramakrishna Reddy, who had filed a petition in cash-for-vote scam against AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday said that he will move the Supreme Court and get the stay granted by the High Court on the ACB court order, vacated.
“I will file a review petition in the High Court seeking lifting of the stay. Then I will approach Supreme Court. The ACB court ordered investigation into the case as we could provide evidence. I have been demanding that Naidu not go for appeal but face investigation.”
Advocate and counsel for the petitioner Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy said, “This is an interim stay. The stay has been given on a memo filed by the ACB. There is no stay on the original case of cash-for-vote.”
