The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed two petitions, which sought to include Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as an accused in the cash-for-votes scam case, and to transfer the investigation in the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Dismissing the petitions filed by Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, the Bench of Justice M M Sundresh and Justice Aravind Kumar issued a stern warning to the YSR Congress Party leader, warning him not to use the judiciary as a platform for political gains.
The Bench upheld the Andhra Pradesh High Court order of December 9, 2016, which rejected Reddy’s plea to implicate Naidu in the case.
The Apex Court passed the order after hearing the counsel for the parties.
Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra and Advocate Guntur Prabhakar appeared for Naidu.
The petitioner alleged that an MLA nominated by MLC Elvis Stephenson was offered Rs 50 lakh cash for casting his vote in favour of the Telugu Desam Party in the MLC elections.
Reddy had earlier filed the complaint before the ACB court in Hyderabad, alleging that though the first report of ACB in the cash-for-vote scam had referred to the name of Naidu 22 times, the investigation agency did not name him as an accused.
On August 29, 2016, the principal special judge of the ACB court in Hyderabad directed the ACB, Telangana, to investigate the case and file its report.
The High Court, however, quashed the complaint and ACB court orders on the ground that Reddy had no locus standi to seek a probe against Naidu in the said case as he was neither an aggrieved party, nor concerned with the case in any way.