VIJAYAWADA: State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Saturday filed a petition in the High Court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged leak of privileged communication between him and the Governor. He stated that probe into the matter by the State police will not yield any result and in turn, the police may even frame him for the leak of confidential letters. Justice Rao Raghunandan Rao, before whom the petition came up for hearing, directed the High Court registry to refer it to the Chief Justice for listing and hearing before another judge.
The SEC, in his petition, said he has the responsibility of conducting the elections in a free and fair manner and for which he needs the cooperation of the Governor. Ramesh Kumar said as part of this, he had written confidential letters to the Governor, which had become public. Alleging that the confidential letters were made public by some people with vested interests, Ramesh Kumar said he urged the Chief Secretary and the Governor’s Secretary to probe the leak. He said the Governor’s Secretary denied any such leak of the confidential letters and failed to inquire the mater.
In the meantime, Ramesh Kumar said he received a notice from the AP Legislative Assembly Secretary on March 18 as ministers Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and Botcha Satyanarayana complained to the Privileges Committee stating that the contents of his letters written to the Governor amounted to breach of their privilege.
Asserting that the letters were not leaked from his office, the SEC said in a writ filed by M Ramireddy of Guntur seeking court direction for conduct of MPTC and ZPTC polls, the petitioner attested the copy of the confidential letter written by him to the Governor. The petitioner, however, did not reveal the source of the letter, he said.
Ramesh Kumar made the Chief Secretary, Governor’s Secretary, Union Home Secretary, CBI Director, ministers Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and Botcha Satyanarayana and Ramireddy respondents. He urged the court to direct the CBI to submit its interim report on leak of letters within 72 hours.