HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear a PIL seeking to hand over the cash-for-vote scam case to the CBI, along with the case pending before it challenging an order of the Hyderabad High Court which had set aside the order passed by the Special ACB Court directing the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conduct a probe into the role of other suspects, including Chandrababu Naidu, in the scam.
The Apex Court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was dealing with PIL filed by YSRC Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy seeking CBI probe into the scam saying that the Telangana ACB was not pursuing the case sincerely.
When the bench was informed about the pending case where notice was issued to AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu seeking his response in a plea by Ramakrishna Reddy challenging an order of the High Court pertaining to cash-for-vote scam, the bench said that it would hear both the cases simultaneously and directed the registry to tag the present (PIL) case with the pending one, and adjourned the matter.
According to the petitioner MLA, he would file another petition before the Apex Court next month for “early hearing’ of the above two cases.
He suspected collusion between Naidu and Telangana ACB to weaken the case. Though the audio tapes have been proved to be that of Naidu, the TRS government was trying to water down the case.
Unless a CBI probe was ordered the truth would not come out, he said.On March 6 this year, the Supreme Court issued notice to Naidu seeking his response in a petition filed by Reddy challenging the High Court order pertaining to cash-for-vote scam case.
In December last year, the High Court had set aside the order passed by the Special ACB Court directing the Telangana ACB to conduct probe into the role of other suspects, including Naidu, in the scam.
The High Court said that as the complainant is opposition party MLA, the possibility of filing the complaint by him against the chief minister to take political vengeance cannot be ruled out and the MLA has no locus stand to intervene in the crime registered by ACB by way of filing complaint.
Aggrieved with the same, the MLA moved an appeal before the Apex Court.