The Vijayawada ACB special court has ordered 14 days of judicial remand for the main accused Raj Kasireddy in the liquor scam case. Magistrate Bhaskara Rao issued orders to this effect at 12.30 am on Tuesday. Later, the accused was taken to the Vijayawada district jail by the police.
Earlier, when Kasireddy was produced in the court, the magistrate had raised an objection at the initial stage. He commented that he should have been produced in the CID court. At one stage, he suggested that he would reject the remand and amend the memo and produce him in the CID court.
Advocate General (AG) Dammalapati Srinivas and PP Kalyani, arguing on behalf of the CID, said, ‘This case is linked to the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act). The ACB court has the jurisdiction to impose judicial remand on the accused Kasireddy. The third accused in the same case, the then Special Officer Satya Prasad, was brought to the notice of the Magistrate that Section 17(A) permission was obtained from the competent authority to interrogate him under the PC Act.
When Magistrate Bhaskara Rao asked whether 17(A) permission was required in the case of Kasireddy, the AG replied that it was not necessary. ‘Kasireddy influenced officials in the AP Beverages Corporation while being an IT consultant during the previous government. He was not a government employee in that corporation. He did not perform official duties in it. Therefore, 17(A) permission was not required,’ he argued.
Senior advocate Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy, on behalf of the accused Kasireddy, argued that ‘the ACB court does not have the jurisdiction to impose remand. The memo given to the accused on Monday stating the reasons for the arrest did not contain any sections of the PC Act.
The remand report submitted by the CID recently included sections of the PC Act. He requested that the remand be rejected. Dammalapati intervened and said that if there is a mention of the PC Act in the remand report, it should be rejected. He reminded the court that permission was obtained under Section 17(A) for the A3 investigation.
He said that all the details have been provided to the accused to defend the remand. He cited several judgments to strengthen his arguments. He said that Kasireddy played a key role in the Rs. 3,200 crore liquor scam and in view of the seriousness of the crime, he requested that the accused be placed on judicial remand.
Magistrate Bhaskara Rao spoke to the accused Kasireddy. Did the CID officials inform him of the reasons for his arrest? Did they issue notices to appear for the investigation? Did they conduct house checks? Are there any health problems? He inquired about other details. After hearing the arguments of both sides, the accused was remanded until May 6.
