PNS | Vijayawada
In a significant development on Monday, the Supreme Court of India refused to pass any order directing the urgent listing of a plea filed by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief, N Chandrababu Naidu. The plea sought the quashing of an FIR registered against Naidu in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud responded to senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who represented TDP chief Naidu, with a cautious “We will see what to do, tomorrow.” This came in response to Luthra’s fervent request for an urgent hearing, despite the petition not being listed for today’s session.
Luthra, making an unlisted mention, brought to the apex court’s attention that Naidu has been in custody since September 8, and alleged that opposition voices in Andhra Pradesh were being stifled. However, the Supreme Court did not accede to the out-of-turn mentioning and instructed Luthra to re-mention the matter on September 26 for directions seeking an urgent listing.
Naidu had approached the Supreme Court with a special leave petition after a single bench of Justice Sreenivas Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissed his petition on September 22.
In his plea, Naidu asserted, “The petitioner was suddenly named in the FIR registered over twenty-one months ago, arrested in an illegal manner, and deprived of his liberty motivated only by political reasons, even though there is no material against him.”
The plea also contended that both the initiation of the inquiry and the registration of the FIR against Naidu were non-existent in law, as both had been initiated and continued without mandatory approval under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Naidu was apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Nandyal on September 9. The following day, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court in Vijayawada remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.
On September 22, the CID was granted custody of Naidu for two days for interrogation at the Rajahmundry Central Jail, where he is presently confined.
Following the conclusion of TDP chief Naidu’s two-day police custody on Sunday, the ACB court further extended his judicial custody until October 5.
The alleged case revolves around the establishment of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) clusters in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3,300 crore during Naidu’s tenure as Chief Minister.
The CID has alleged that this purported fraud led to a substantial loss of Rs 371 crore to the state government. They claimed that an advance of Rs 371 crore, representing the entire 10 per cent commitment by the government for the project, was released before any expenditure by private entities.
