Andhra Pradesh High Court reserves judgment on former MLA’s plea to transfer Amaravati IRR case to CBI

Justice Venkata Jyothirmai Pratapa on Wednesday reserved the verdict in the writ petition filed by the former MLA, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, for handing over the Amaravati Internal Ring Road (IRR) scam case registered in 2022 to the CBI.

N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was at that time Leader of the Opposition, is one of the prime accused in the case.

Justice Jyothirmai heard the main plea, which was to transfer the case from the CID to CBI, along with two other connected petitions, including one for cancelling the interim bail previously given to Mr. Naidu, and reserved the judgment in all of them.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Jada Sravan Kumar argued that the case should be assigned to the CBI as a fair probe was not possible because the investigation officers were effectively working under Mr. Naidu, who is the present Chief Minister.

He objected to the closing of the case after the government changed in June 2024 on the ground of “mistake of fact”, and that Mr. Naidu violated the bail conditions.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi insisted that the petition for transferring the case to CBI was not maintainable as a “mistake of fact” report had already been filed in the Vijayawada ACB Court and the State police (CID) were doing an impartial investigation.

He contended that Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy’s petition was politically motivated and had no merits that warranted the conceding of his plea.