Coming up: VIP cases in Hyderabad trial courts 

HYDERABAD: Pursuant to the recent orders by the Supreme Court and Telangana High Court, various high-profile criminal cases pending against VIPs from the two Telugu states will be coming up for hearing over the next couple of weeks in various courts in Hyderabad. 

There are several cases against political leaders like Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Congress MP A Revanth Reddy and AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi.

The trial courts at Hyderabad, including the Special CBI Court and ACB Court, have listed various cases pending against both sitting and former MPs and MLAs. 

Among them are alleged disproportionate assets case against the Andhra Pradesh CM and various cases involving Revanth Reddy and others, in which hearing takes place on Monday. At present, most of these leaders are on bail.  

The trial courts will now take up these cases for hearing on day-to-day basis as per the high court direction.On Friday, Jagan’s counsel filed an application before the Special CBI Court with a plea to hear the alleged disproportionate assets case through video conferencing mode. The CBI court has listed the matter for hearing on Monday. Several other accused, including Telangana Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy, YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy, MLA Dharmana Prasada Rao and several senior IAS officers and industrialists are involved in the assets case. The case was last heard in February this year. 

As for Chandrababu Naidu’s alleged disproportionate assets case filed in 2005 by Lakshmi Parvathi, YSRC leader and wife of former CM late NT Rama Rao, the Special ACB Court while dealing with the case in Feb this year, posted the matter to February 26 for further hearing. 

Naidu had filed an appeal before the then AP High Court, which granted stay on proceedings pending before the trial court. For the last 14 years, the stay was in operation and the High Court had also refused to vacate the stay as pleaded by Lakshmi Parvati. 

Last year, the Supreme Court had issued a blanket order by vacating stay orders in all the old civil and criminal cases. Following the Apex Court order, the stay granted in Naidu’s appeal also stood vacated. Any stay order will be in force for a maximum period of six months, her counsel argued before the trial court. The Special ACB Court posted the case to October 21 for hearing. 

With regard to sensational cash-for-vote scam case, in December 2016 the then Hyderabad High Court granted relief to Chandrababu Naidu by setting 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, in the scam. 

The ACB court passed the order based on the complaint of YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy. The MLA alleged that the ACB had failed to probe into the role of Naidu in the cash-for-vote scam case though the audio tapes of phone conversation of Naidu and TRS-nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson clearly shows the involvement of the former in the case. 

The then TDP MLA Revanth Reddy, presently Congress MP, was caught red-handed by the ACB officials while he was offering bribe to Stephenson in May, 2015. Later, the High Court granted bail to Revanth and others in the case.