SC asks Chandrababu Naidu's lawyer to mention his plea to quash FIR on Tues

The Supreme Court on Monday asked counsel of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to mention on September 26 his plea seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in the skill development scam case.

As senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Naidu, tried to mention for urgent hearing the plea, which was not listed in mentioning list, the bench asked him to mention it tomorrow.

Luthra told the bench that the case is related to the State of Andhra Pradesh where the opposition is being curbed.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, "Come tomorrow in the mentioning list."

 

Naidu approached the Supreme Court against High Court order which declined to quash the FIR on Friday.

He sought quashing of FIR registered by AP-CID in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam on the ground that the police did not obtain prior sanction from the Governor as mandated under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

In his plea, Naidu contended that Andhra Pradesh High Court had rejected his petition by ignoring his pleading that under Section 17A of the PC Act, which came into force from July 26, 2018, no FIR against a public servant could be registered without prior sanction of the appropriate authority.

The FIR against Naidu was registered on December 9, 2021, and he was added as accused number 37 in the case on September 7, 2023.

Section 17 A of PC Act was not complied with as "no permission was obtained from the competent authority", the plea stated.

As Naidu was the Chief Minister at the time of the commission of the alleged offence relating to the skill development scam, the competent authority would have been the Governor of the state.

Naidu, presently the Leader of Opposition, the national president of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), called the action against him as "an orchestrated campaign of regime revenge and to derail the largest opposition, the Telugu Desam Party".

"The extent of the political vendetta, is further demonstrated from the belated application for grant of police custody on September 11, 2023, which names the political opponent i.e. the TDP and also the petitioner's family, which is being targeted to crush all opposition to the party in power in the State with elections coming near in 2024," it added.

This motivated campaign of harassment has been allowed to continue by the Courts unabated despite patent illegality in the FIR, the appeal stated.

Meanwhile N Chandrababu Naidu's continues to be in judicial custody at Rajamahendravaram Central Prison after his remand was extended till October 5.

Andhra Pradesh Police CID officials concluded their two-day interrogation of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in the Skill Development Corporation scam case on Sunday at the prison.