Amaravati land deals: Andhra government withdraws plea in SC against HC order

NEW DELHI:  The Andhra Pradesh government Thursday withdrew from the Supreme Court its plea challenging the High Court order which had stayed the SIT probe into alleged irregularities in the land deals in Amaravati during the previous TDP regime.

The state government told a bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari that it will approach the High Court.

The state government had told the top court on March 5 that it was agreeable to a court-monitored CBI probe into alleged irregularities in land transactions during shifting of the state capital to Amaravati.

The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government had constituted the 10-member SIT to conduct a comprehensive investigation into various alleged irregularities, particularly the land deals in the Amaravati Capital Region, during the previous Chandrababu Naidu regime.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by AP government through advocate Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki against last year’s September 15 order of the high court.

On November 25 last year, the top court had stayed the high court direction restraining the media from publishing news regarding an FIR lodged on alleged irregularities in land transactions in Amaravati.

It had however refused to stay the other directions of the high court including the stay on probe into the FIR in the matter.

The apex court had on July 19 dismissed six appeals filed by the AP government challenging the high court order quashing FIRs against private buyers of plots at Amravati.