The Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on a petition filed by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him on January 16.
The FIR was lodged by the Andhra Pradesh Investigation Department in connection to a skill development scam case. A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi, which reserved the judgement on October 17 last year will deliver the verdict tomorrow at 1 PM.
Earlier, Chandrababu Naidu’s lawyers, Senior Advocates Harish Salve and Siddharth Luthra argued that the police could not have made Naiduan accused in the case without obtaining the sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Appearing for the State, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi countered the argument and stated that since the offence occurred before the insertion of Section 17A in the PC Act through the 2018 amendment, the mandate of prior sanction was not applicable in the case.
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was arrested on September 9, 2023. He remained in custody till October 31. The Andhra Pradesh High Court granted him bail on medical grounds. Following on November 20, the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted him regular bail, observing that there was no prima facie case made out against him.
The skill development scam case relates to the alleged embezzlement of nearly Rs 371 crore from Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation through fictitious companies during the Telugu Desam Party’s rule between 2014 and 2019. The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister is the 37th accused in a 2021 First Information Report (FIR) related to the multi-crore scam involving the state skill development corporation.
Recently, the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted anticipatory bail to TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu in the Inner Ring Road (IRR) case, excise policy case and sand mining case.