NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant any interim relief to former Chief Minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who had sought quashing of an FIR registered against him in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam.
A bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued a notice to the State government asking it to produce complete documents of the case that were presented before the AP High Court during the previous round of proceedings and posted the case for further hearing on October 9.
The bench also refused to entertain Naidu’s plea to restrain the ACB court from examining APCID’s application for his custodial interrogation. It may be noted that CID’s plea for Naidu’s custody is slated to come up before the trial court on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the TDP chief in his special leave petition had argued that he was arrested in an illegal manner and was deprived of his liberty by disregarding the fact that all actions were initiated without obtaining the sanction mandated under Section 17(A) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
Naidu’s legal team, comprising senior advocates Harish Salve, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Sidharth Luthra, informed the top court that all the allegations in the FIR pertained to the decisions, instructions or recommendations made by Naidu while the Chief Minister of the State. “This is nothing but a political case and the rigours of Section 17(A) will apply in the matter,” Salve said.
Luthra stated, “CID has been roping Naidu in FIR after FIR. It is a clear case of regime change.” Naidu’s counsel pointed out that the dates, as per the FIR, were wrong as the inquiry began on December 9, 2021, based on a letter dated September 7, 2021, to the DGP.
In response, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the State government, said that the question of Section 17(A) did not arise as the provision came in July 2018, while the investigation into the case began
in 2017.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been looking into the case even before the present government came to power in May 2019 and that a subsequent registration of an FIR in December 2021 will not make it mandatory for the police to take prior approval before arresting Naidu,” Rohatgi told the bench.
To this, the top court asked Rohatgi to produce all the records before it on October 9 when the matter will be heard next. The case is related to the alleged diversion of government funds intended for a skill development project into various shell companies through fraudulent invoices. Naidu was arrested on September 9 and was later remanded to custody in the matter on September 10.