VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday asked the Crime Investigation Department (CID) not to proceed further into the case it filed based on a complaint by YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy stating that the letter written by the State Election Commissioner (SEC) to the Ministry of Home Affairs could have been forged, till September 14. The CID registered a case to look into the YSRC MP’s complaint alleging that the letter SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar dashed off to the Ministry of Home Affairs soon after the Supreme Court gave its verdict on March 18 upholding the SEC’s decision to postpone elections to local bodies could have been forged.
Ramesh Kumar and SEC Assistant Secretary K Samba Murthy filed petitions in the HC seeking court’s intervention to stop the CID probe.When the petitions came up for hearing before High Court Judge D Ramesh on Monday, senior counsel DV Sitarama Murthy representing the SEC said with the CID probe, the State government is interfering in the functioning of the SEC.
He sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the registering of case by the CID and wanted the court to direct the CID to return all the material seized from the SEC office.Senior advocate S Ashwini Kumar, appearing on behalf of SEC assistant secretary Murthy, said the CID registered the case only to harass the SEC employees. He told the court that the police harassed Murthy in the name of investigation. The government pleader sought time to file a counter and pleaded the court not to give any interim order till then.
Justice Ramesh asked the government pleader to file a counter with the details of the progress of the case, the details of the petitioner and why the case was registered. Adjourning the case to September 14, the court issued an interim order directing the CID not to go ahead with the probe till September 14.