NEW DELHI: Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu approached the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by APCID in connection with the multi-crore AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) scam. He approached the top court on Saturday against the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order on September 22, refusing to quash the FIR and the order dated September 10, 2023 of his judicial remand.
The TDP chief, in his plea, argued that he was arrested in an illegal manner and deprived of his liberty motivated only by political reasons by disregarding the fact that all actions were initiated without obtaining the sanction mandated by Section 17A of the PC Act.Observing that the plea was devoid of merit, the High Court stated that it cannot conduct a mini-trial on a petition filed under Section 482 of CrPC (quash petition).
In the 68-page order, Justice K Sreenivasa Reddy pointed out that the APCID, which registered a case in 2021, had examined more than 140 witnesses and collected more than 4,000 documents pertaining to the case. At this stage, where the investigation is on fulcrum of attaining finality, this court is not inclined to interfere with the impugned proceedings, the Judge ruled. After the dismissal of the Naidu’s quash petition, the ACB special court granted two-day custody of the former CM to the APCID for questioning in connection with the APSSDC scam.