The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday ordered an interim stay on the ACB court proceedings against N Chandrababu Naidu in the Skill Development case. Justice K Sreenivasa Reddy also directed that the State Crime Investigation Department (CID) cannot take custody of Naidu until September 18 and Naidu will continue to remain in judicial custody.
Naidu was arrested in connection with a fraud case involving misappropriation of funds from the Skill Development Corporation, leading to a loss of over Rs 300 crore to the state government, AP CID Chief N Sanjay had said after the arrest. The Court was hearing Naidu's plea against the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court order remanding him to 14 days of judicial custody in connection with the alleged scam.
Naidu asserted that he was falsely implicated in the case. He had also claimed that there was a clear statutory violation of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which deals with the need for prior sanction to inquire into the actions of public servants done in the discharge of their official duties, according to a report by Bar and Bench. He claimed that AP CID had not followed due procedure before registering the case against him. The case will be heard again by the High Court on September 19.
After a local court in Vijayawada on Tuesday rejected a house custody petition filed by the TDP chief, his legal team moved two pleas in the High Court -- one seeking quashing of the case and another a bail petition. The AP High Court posted the hearing regarding quashing of FIR for September 19 and directed AP CID to file its reply.
