HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday questioned the Andhra Pradesh government as to why it has not handed over the case information to the Central agency when the attack on YSR Congress chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy occurred inside the Visakhapatnam airport premises. As per the Civil Aviation Act, information pertaining to the incident ought to have been forwarded to the Centre. This was a serious issue and both the Centre and the State government should clarify on this, the bench ordered.
The bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice SV Bhatt was passing this order on the petition filed by YSR Congress president Jagan seeking probe by any appropriate independent agency, not under the control of State government.
Jagan later filed an additional affidavit seeking directions to the Centre for conducting a comprehensive investigation into the incident.
He also sought directions to the State government to forthwith forward the case report and information to the Centre for the purpose. Central agencies like NIA has got the power to probe such incidents, he added.
Senior counsel CV Mohan Reddy, appearing for Jagan, told the court that the attack incident would fall under ‘the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982’. As per the Act, the Andhra Pradesh police should have forwarded the case report and information to the Centre, but they failed to do so.
The police authorities failed in performing their statutory duties by not conforming with the provisions of the law, despite the offence having fallen squarely within the parameters of Section 3A of the Act, 1982. The Centre has constituted the NIA to deal with such offences, the counsel for Jagan said.
After hearing the senior counsel, the bench stated it was mandatory for the State government to take the issue to the notice of the Centre under the Act. If the Centre intervenes in the issue, then there is no need for the State police to probe the incident. “The court wants to know why the State government has so far not forwarded the information to the Centre,” the bench said and sought clarification from both the Centre and AP. The bench made it clear that it would not interfere with the ongoing probe by the AP police at this stage.
Meanwhile, P Sudhakar Reddy, counsel appearing for YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, urged the court to stay all further proceedings in the investigation being conducted by the State police considering the fact that the case falls under the Civil Aviation Act. The bench posted the matter to December 5 for further hearing.