‘Come tomorrow’, says SC on urgent mentioning of Chandrababu Naidu’s plea against FIR

Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass any order directing the urgent listing of a plea filed by Chandrababu Naidu seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass any order directing the urgent listing of a plea filed by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.

“Come tomorrow in the mentioning list. We will see what to do,” told a bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud to senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for Telugu Desam Party chief, seeking an urgent hearing in the matter despite the petition not being there in the mentioning list.

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Luthra, who made an unlisted mentioning, apprised the top court that Naidu is in custody from September 8 and opposition in Andhra Pradesh is being curbed. The apex court did not accede to the out-of-turn mentioning and asked Luthra to mention the matter again on September 26 for directions seeking urgent listing.

Naidu has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court after a single bench of Justice Sreenivas Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed his petition on September 22.

“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 and even though there is no material against him,” stated the plea filed before the apex court.

It said that both the initiation of the enquiry and the registration of the FIR against Naidu is non est (non-existent in law) as both have been initiated and investigation continued till date without a mandatory approval under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Naidu was arrested in the case by the CID in Nandyal on September 9. The next day, ACB Court in Vijayawada sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. On September 22, CID was granted custody of Naidu for two days to interrogate him in Rajahmundry Central Jail where he is currently lodged.

Soon after TDP supremo’s two-day police custody came to an end on Sunday, the ACB court extended his judicial custody till October 5. The alleged case relates to the establishment of clusters of Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3,300 crore when Naidu was the chief minister.

The CID claimed that the alleged fraud has caused a huge loss of Rs 371 crore to the state government. The agency 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 the private entities.