Supreme Court to hear Mangalagiri MLA’s plea to include Naidu in cash-for-vote case after two weeks

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday posted further hearing on the plea submitted by the Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, to include former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the cash-for-vote case after two weeks.

In his petition, Ramakrishna Reddy pointed out that the name of Naidu was repeatedly (22 times) mentioned in the charge sheet filed by the Telangana ACB special court and therefore his name must be included in this case. He argued that the ACB failed to take the case to a logical ending and urged the Supreme Court to direct the ACB to investigate the role of Naidu as a prime accused in the case.

The principal special judge of the ACB court at Hyderabad, on August 29, 2016, directed the ACB, Telangana, to re-investigate the case and file its report. However, the ACB in its counter said that there was no need to re-probe the case. Justice Raja Elango while dealing with Naidu’s petition on September 3, 2016, stayed the ACB court orders. In December 2016, Justice Sunil Chowdary of the combined high court quashed the ACB court orders.

The Apex Court on October 3, 2023, dismissed a quash petition filed by TPCC president A Revanth Reddy that the cash-for-vote case doesn’t come under the jurisdiction of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

Earlier, Revanth Reddy approached the Telangana High Court. In his petition, the TPCC president stated that the cash-for-vote case did not come under the purview of ACB. However, the High Court dismissed the petition and Revanth Reddy approached the Supreme Court and challenged the High Court’s verdict.

The Supreme Court Bench of Justice NVN Bhatti and Justice Sanjeev Khanna, hearing both sides, said that there was prima facie evidence in the case, that it was fit to be dealt with under the ACB investigation.

The advocates that appeared on behalf of the Telangana Government said that all the evidence was submitted for scrutiny to the trial court. However, the counsel of Revanth Reddy appealed the dismissal of the case saying that the cash-for-vote issue did not come under the ACB's jurisdiction. After hearing the arguments from both sides, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition of Revanth Reddy.