High Court stays order against Naidu

​Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu got relief from the High Court at Hyderabad which stayed the ACB probe ordered against him by ACB trial court in the cash-for-vote scam case following a complaint by YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy.

Justice Raja Elango, before whom the petition filed by Chandrababu Naidu came, ordered stay of all further proceedings on the probe at the behest of latest complaint for a period of eight weeks. He asked the ACB counsel to file a detailed counter affidavit in this matter.

Appearing on behalf of Chandrababu Naidu, senior counsel Sidharth Luthra urged the court to quash the ACB probe ordered against the petitioner because the trial court “referred the complaint against him to ACB in a mechanical manner and its order too was without any reasons, jurisdiction etc”. He said that the YSRCP MLA, a third party without any connection to the case, has filed this case due to political rivalry.

ACB counsel V Ravi Kiran Rao told the court that they are not launching any second FIR in the case in view of the MLA’s complaint. A memo to this effect was filed before the trial court, he informed.

The judge faulted this and sought to know from the ACB as to how they can file a memo when they are duty bound to register an FIR and investigate when such complaints are referred to them by the courts.

“You are inventing new methods,” the judge told the ACB counsel. Ramakrishna Reddy’s counsel P Sudhakar Reddy objected to the grant of stay and cited the order of Supreme Court in the 2G scam case that barred the accused to challenge the trial court’s orders at the stage of investigation itself.

Stating that Chandrababu was not even made an accused in the case, Sudhakar Reddy told the court that a prospective accused like Babu cannot come to court at this stage. He cannot seek a stay on the probe at this stage, the counsel said.

Another accused in the case, Mathaiah, approached the high court earlier and sought quashing of the case against him. This court quashed the case against him on the ground that a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act is unsustainable in a case related to an electoral offence like giving money to buy a vote.

In view of this order of the high court, can the magistrate order such a probe now, asked Justice Elango and stayed all further proceedings in the matter for eight weeks. The judge said that questions like whether a prospective accused can challenge the probe at this stage or not will be framed and decided in the final hearing.