VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking transfer of cases registered by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) against Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and others to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to October 26.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Challa Gunaranjan adjourned the matter after a junior counsel appearing for the petitioner sought time, citing the personal reasons of the senior advocate’s inability to attend the hearing.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the State government and CID, submitted that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had filed final reports before the Vijayawada Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court in cases against Chandrababu Naidu, stating that sufficient evidence was not available to proceed.
The ACB Court had considered the reports and ordered closure of the cases, he said. Rohatgi further informed the court that some individuals had challenged the closure orders by filing revision petitions before the High Court.
In view of these developments, he argued that nothing remained to be examined in the present PIL and urged the court to dismiss it as infructuous. Journalist Balagangadhara Tilak filed the PIL in 2024, seeking directions to transfer investigations into several cases registered by the CID against Chandrababu Naidu and others during the previous YSRCP government to the CBI and ED.
He also filed an interlocutory petition seeking directions to the Vijayawada ACB Court to ensure that documents and electronic devices seized during investigations were not returned to the concerned individuals.