The Andhra Pradesh state government has questioned the credibility of the petitioner, who approached the AP High Court seeking hand over of all cases against Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu from CID to CBI and ED.
Editor of Swarna Andhra Telugu Daily Balagangadhara Tilak approached the High Court with the plea of handing over all CID cases filed by the previous YS Jaganmohan Reddy regime against present chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to CBI and ED.
The cases filed against CM Chandrababu, minister P Narayana and others include on Amaravati inner ring road, assigned lands, fiber grid, skill development, liquor and free sand policy.
A bench of High Court Chief Justice Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Cheemalapati Ravi conducted an investigation. Senior advocate Sripada Prabhakar argued on behalf of the petitioner that since the present Chief Minister Chandrababu is an accused in the said cases, the investigation will not be carried out impartially.
Moreover, he said that the IPS officers who investigated these cases, Sanjay and Kolli Raghurami Reddy, were transferred after the present government came to power. He also said that Chandrababu and Home Minister Anita told the media in their capacity as CM that they will review the cases registered during the previous government.
He said that it is not correct that he himself will review the cases registered against Chandrababu. But the arguments of the petitioner were rejected by the government lawyers. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas told the court on behalf of the government that the current public interest litigation is not meritorious.
They also questioned the credibility of the petitioner. The petitioner, who claims to be running a magazine, has not mentioned any details including its circulation. They said that there is no daily called Swarnandhra. It is said that 114 people have been named as defendants in the lawsuit due to the clamor of publicity.
Moreover, they made it clear that the PIL based only on the articles in the newspapers has no merit. They want time to counter the trialability of the lawsuit. They also objected to the plea of handing over cases to the CBI on the grounds that the entire law enforcement mechanism has failed as long as the person who is the accused in the cases is the CM.
However, the High Court made it clear that regardless of the government’s decision, the public prosecutor has to take the final decision regarding the withdrawal of cases. It is reminded that the state government has not issued any orders regarding the withdrawal of cases. The High Court has ordered the Chief Secretary to the Government, the Principal Secretary of the Home Department, etc to respond. The next hearing was adjourned to September 11.
