A plea from former Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, to quash an order of the Deputy Commissioner of the I-T department, declining to grant permission to cross-examine a witness, was rejected by HC.

“I do not find any infirmity in the order of the refusing cross-examination since the witness has turned hostile. In the result, the writ petition fails and is dismissed,” Justice P T Asha said on Thursday.

Rao submitted that certain political players were eager to make a statement by making bureaucrats like him scapegoats. The I-T department conducted a raid at the premises of K Srinivasulu of SRS Mines and following his statement that Rao’s son was involved in his business, the officials conducted a raid at his premises on December 10, 2016, and seized certain documents and his son’s name had been implicated without any authority of law, the petitioner added.