VIJAYAWADA: The TDP chief and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has his fingers crossed as three important cases involving him will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court, ACB special court and AP High Court on Monday.
The TDP and its supporters are waiting with bated breath as they hope for Naidu’s relief in the top court, where the latter’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) seeking to quash the FIR against him in the skill development case, will come up for hearing. On the other hand, the ACB special court in Vijayawada is likely to pronounce its judgment on Naidu’s bail plea and CID’s custody petitions in the same case.
The High Court will also hear Naidu’s bail petitions in connection with the Amaravati Inner Ring Road Alignment, Fibernet and Angallu violence cases. Initially, Naidu had filed a quash petition in the High Court against the FIR registered against him by the APCID in the skill development case. However, Naidu’s hope of relief was dashed when Justice K Sreenivas Reddy dismissed his petition.
Subsequently, the TDP chief moved to the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court order. With one of the judges recusing himself from hearing the case, the SLP was placed before another top court bench, which came for a hearing on October 3. The Supreme Court bench had asked the State government to produce all the documents that were presented before the High Court and had adjourned the hearing to October 9.
Naidu’s counsel Siddharth Luthra had argued that the arrest of the former Chief Minister was illegal as the CID failed to obtain the consent of the Governor under Section 17 (A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Also, he asserted that there were no specific allegations against Naidu that constituted an offence under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) of the IPC.
It may be noted that the ex-Chief Minister completed 30 days in judicial custody. Naidu was arrested on September 9 in the skill development case and was remanded to judicial custody, which was extended three times.