HYDERABAD: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday posted the matter relating to the cash-for-vote scam involving Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and others to February 2019 for hearing.
The Supreme Court was dealing with the expedite petition filed by YSR Congress MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy for an early hearing of the case filed by him seeking to hand over the cash-for-vote scam to the CBI along with the case pending before it, challenging an order of the Hyderabad High Court, which had set aside the order passed by the Special ACB Court directing the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conduct probe into the role of other suspects, including Naidu’s role, in the scam.
When the matter came up for hearing, the counsel for Naidu urged the court not to hear the present case as it was filed against his client out of political rivalry.On the other hand, the counsel for Ramakrishna Reddy submitted that there was evidence about involvement of Naidu in the scam. The audio tapes of phone conversation of Naidu and TRS nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson had clearly showed the involvement of the former in the case and the forensic report had also confirmed it, he said and urged the court to order CBI probe as the Telangana ACB was not probing the case properly.
After hearing both sides, the SC said that it would take up the case hearing in February. When the counsel for Naidu submitted that there would be elections in February or March 2019, the SC said that it was not concerned with the elections.