Justice K. Suresh Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday posted former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s bail petition in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road (IRR) alignment case to September 27 for further hearing.
The basic allegation is that one of the three options available for alignment of IRR was frozen in such a manner to derive maximum pecuniary benefit to Mr. Naidu’s near and dear ones, due to which the value of their lands escalated manifold, and ordinary people whose lands were notified under the project incurred wrongful loss.
Appearing for Mr. Naidu virtually, senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and Dammalapati Srinivas said there was no material in the FIR to connect their client to the crime and these were nothing but tactics to take down an entire political family to stamp out any dissent.
Mr. Luthra pointed out that the other accused in the same case were granted anticipatory bail by High Court and the same was upheld by the Supreme Court. “It is ‘deemed custody’. If the court thinks otherwise, it should consider granting anticipatory bail,” Mr. Luthra pleaded.
Appearing for the CID, Advocate-General S. Sriram argued that the judgments on the basis of which it was assumed to be deemed custody were not applicable to the present case.
He said the fact that CID duly filed a petition for PT warrant and police custody in the lower court indicated that it did not treat Mr. Naidu as in deemed custody.
The Advocate-General maintained that the anticipatory bail plea could not be heard when the police custody petition was pending in the special court for ACB and SPE cases.
Meanwhile, the High Court reserved its verdict on Mr. Naidu’s bail plea in the case related to the clash that took place at Angallu village in Annamayya district during his recent visit to irrigation projects.
The Vijayawada ACB Special Court adjourned Mr. Naidu’s bail plea and CID custody petition in the skill development scam case to September 27.
The matters were heard by Metropolitan Sessions Judge A. Satyanand who was in-charge of the special court in the absence of the regular judge B.S.V. Himabindu, who was on leave for the day.
