Justice NV Ramana of the AP High Court on Monday recused himself from hearing two public interest petitions - one, seeking a direction to the Centre to retain VV Lakshminarayana, CBI joint director, till completion of the ongoing probe into the Jagan’s assets case and another seeking a direction to the CBI to probe allegations made by former TRS leader M Raghunandan Rao against TRS leaders K Chandrasekhara Rao, T Harish Rao and others.
When the two PILs came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice Ramana, the latter expressed his disinclination to hear the cases. The Chief Justice then said that he would constitute another bench to hear the pleas.
When the petition for retaining Lakshminarayana in the present post came up for hearing, CBI counsel P Kesava Rao told the court that the agency would file a counter affidavit.
When Justice Ramana recused himself, the Chief Justice directed the CBI counsel to place his arguments before another bench.
Petitioner C Kutumba Rao, a freelance journalist, has recently filed the PIL with a request that the court direct the Central government to retain Lakshminarayana. He also wanted the court to direct the Centre to take a decision immediately regarding sanction for prosecution of IAS officers allegedly involved in the case.
In another public interest petition, petitioner Y Balaji Vadera, a practising advocate, submitted that expelled TRS leader Raghunandan had levelled allegations against KCR, Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao and others and also lodged a written complaint before the CBI with supporting evidence and documents.
Till date, no investigating authority has acted on the complaint, he said.
Raghunandan had alleged that the TRS leaders had collected `10 crore from Nimmagadda Prasad, an industrialist, presently lodged in Chanchalguda prison in connection with the Vanpic case.
