Hyderabad: The High Court in Andhra Pradesh has postponed the CID investigation against N Chandrababu Naidu, head of the Telugu Desam party, and former minister P Narayana in the ‘Amaravati Land Scam’.
The Supreme Court adjourned the investigation for four weeks.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer Sidharth Luthra, who argued in favor of Naidu and former lawyer general Dammalapati Srinivas who argued for Narayana, told the court that the CID cases were politically motivated.
The head of the Telugu Desam party, N Chandrababu Naidu, and the former minister, P Narayana, on Thursday submitted requests to the High Court in Andhra Pradesh in which they submitted the first information report that the crime investigation department has filed against them in the ‘Amaravati Land Scam ‘must strike.
The Supreme Court is expected to take up the petition for trial on Friday, legal sources said.
The FIR was filed on March 12 under various sections of Indian criminal law, including criminal conspiracy, and also the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Section 7 of the AP Allocated Lands Act (Prohibition on Transfer), 1977, was also invoked in the case.
The CID’s FIR was based on a complaint lodged by YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy on February 24, more than a month after the Supreme Court dismissed a case involving ‘insider trading’ in the Amaravati land fraud.
Chandrababu Naidu and former Minister P Narayana were listed as accused number 1 and 2.
“Other officials” have also been indicted in the FIR, but have not yet been named. The issue concerns the amalgamation of land for the development of the state’s new capital Amaravati in 2015.
The CID made notices to both Chandrababu Naidu and Narayana and asked them to appear before the investigating officer at the Vijayawada Regional Office on March 23 and 22 to investigate “to establish facts that you know exclusively”.
Complainant Alla appeared before the investigating officer in Vijayawada on Thursday and presented his case.
The ruling party legislature of Mangalagiri in the main region of Amaravati claims that 500 hectares of land belonging only to the Dalits in its constituency have been taken away with doubt.
He told reporters after he redeemed it that he had submitted relevant evidence to the CID for the investigation.
Source: The Siasat Daily