VIJAYAWADA: Registration of an FIR by the Andhra Pradesh anti-corruption bureau (ACB) against former advocate-general Dammalapati Srinivas, two daughters of a senior Supreme Court judge and others in an alleged land purchase scam in Amaravati led to an unprecedented spat between the executive and the judiciary. With the SC on Wednesday staying the gag order of the AP high court, the FIR registered by the ACB has now become a public document.
ACB had registered the FIR on September 15, but the court had stayed the proceedings on Srinivas’s plea and directed that the contents of the case should not be made public. The case was originally posted before the bench of Justice D Ramesh, who had recused himself. It was then posted for September 16, but the court took it up for hearing late in the night of September 15 after Srinivas moved a house motion. The government filed a petition in the SC, against the AP HC order.
ACB, which took up investigation into alleged land scam after an advocate from Ongole, Komatla Srinivasa Swamy Reddy, filed a complaint on September 7 and named Dammalapati Srinivas as the main accused.
ACB officials said that Srinivas acquired land in the core capital area or abutting the capital region between June 2014 and December 2014 for his close relatives and associates. During 2015-16, Srinivas purchased land for himself and his wife Dammalapati Nagarani. Apart from leaking the ‘official secret’ of the capital city Amaravati, the FIR also accuses him of criminal conspiracy.
The officials claimed Srinivas, who held a constitutional post, was privy to the information of the exact location of the capital had purchased land, and had benefited out of the deals by ‘abusing his official position.’ The FIR said many of these properties were purchased by the alleged beneficiaries much before the land pooling scheme began. In the preliminary inquiry it was found out that Srinivas’s father-inlaw, his brother-in-law and another relative bought properties either in the core capital area or in the surrounding areas.
ACB had filed the case for criminal breach of trust by a public servant, cheating and dishonesty) r/w 120-B of IPC against the 13 persons.