Another blow to Jagan; AP HC quashes CID case against IRS officer

AMARAVATI: In yet another setback for the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday quashed a criminal case registered by the AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) against IRS officer Jasti Krishna Kishore. The high court cited lack of evidence and non-maintainability of the sections invoked in the case for dismissing the case.

After coming to power in 2019, the YSRCP government suspended Krishna Kishore who was in the state service on deputation then. In addition, the AP CID registered a case invoking several sections under the CrPC. Krishna Kishore previously served as the CEO of Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Council during the TDP rule. He was charged with corrupting the council.

The IRS officer later challenged his suspension from service in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which granted a stay on the state government orders in this regard.

Following a detailed hearing, the Hyderabad bench of the CAT, headed by Justice Narasimha Reddy revoked the suspension. It directed the Andhra Pradesh government to annul the orders to this effect and reinstate him into service.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court took up the hearing of the AP CID case against Krishna Kishore and disposed it off on Tuesday. While quashing the case, the high court ruled that there was no clinching evidence to establish that Krishna Kishore either took arbitrary decisions or had benefitted from his position with the economic council.

In a further indignation of the YSRCP government, the high court also observed that the case appeared to have been registered with malafide intentions based on the premise that Krishna Kishore enjoyed close ties with former CBI join director Lakshminarayana who had investigated the disproportionate assets cases against YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

The high court ruled that the decision to quash the case was premised on the Supreme Court guidelines issued in the Bhajan Lal case in the past. Jasti Krishna Kishore held a key position in the Income Tax Department's Hyderabad circle during which time he issued notices asking for payment of taxes for the profits earned from YS Jagan's media house, the Jagati Publications.

Krishna Kishore, in his petition to the high court, alleged that, keeping a grudge over this, a false case was foisted against him after Jagan came to power.