23 Sep 2023 8:44 AM GMT
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu approached the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIR against him in connection with the skill development scam case.
He filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on Saturday challenging the judgment delivered by the Andhra Pradesh High Court yesterday dismissing his plea to quash the FIR. Following the dismissal of the petition, a Court in Vijayawada granted the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department(CID) two days police custody of Naidu for interrogation.
The leader of the opposition Telugu Desom Party was arrested on September 10 and has been under custody since then. He is arrayed as the 37th accused in the FIR registered by the AP CID in 2021 over the multi-crore scam in relation to the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation.
Yesterday, a single bench of Justice K. Sreenivas Reddy of the High Court rejected the argument raised by Senior Advocates Harish Salve and Siddharth Luthra on behalf of Naidu that the prior sanction as per Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act was necessary for the FIR.
The allegations relating to the fabrication of documents and misappropriation of funds cannot be regarded as discharge of official duties and hence the protection of Section 17A was not available, held the High Court. The High Court further said that the pursuant to the registration of the crime in the year 2021, the CID examined as many as more than 140 witnesses and collected documents to the tune of more than 4000. Noting that the investigation is attaining its finality, the High Court said that it cannot interfere and dismissed the petition as "devoid of merit".