VIJAYAWADA: As directed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Saturday filed a counter to the petition filed by former advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas challenging the ACB case against him in the Amaravati land scam.
In the counter filed with the court, investigating officer TVV Pratap Kumar explained that there was no ulterior motive behind registering an FIR against Srinivas and others in the Amaravati land scam.
He said if a complaint is received by the police and the content of the complaint needs an investigation, an FIR has to be registered and going by that principle only the FIR was registered against the former advocate general and others, he said and added that they had followed the due rules in registering FIR as specified by the Supreme Court.
Further, the investigating officer in his counter said on the very day the FIR was registered, the High Court had issued an interim stay. He argued that the Supreme Court had made it clear that the court cannot use its power to hinder investigation.
Pratap Kumar further pointed out that the argument that people are aware of where the capital city would come in July 2014 itself is baseless as the capital city was not finalised till December 2014.
He said constituting an SIT on the Amaravati land scam was an administrative decision taken by the State government and it has no relation with the FIR. Further, he pointed out that no action was taken against the petitioner and neither was he arrested nor his movements were hindered.
He said there is a difference between the right to purchase property and misusing law to procure property. There are several issues in the FIR that need to be investigated but were not done following the stay order. He also dismissed the argument that the assistant advocate general is not a public servant and urged the court to strike down the petition filed by Dammalapati Srinivas.
Srinivas had filed a petition in the High Court seeking a stay on any action including his arrest in view of the State government requesting for a CBI inquiry into the land scam and giving its assent for the same in March last year. However, with the ACB registering a case against him even as his petition was pending in the court, he filed a supplementary petition in the form of a house motion.
In the petition, he sought a media gag order in the case proceedings. Then Chief Justice JK Maheshwari stayed the inquiry and investigation in the ACB case against Dammalapati and directed ACB not to take any action against the accused till further orders.