It looks like noose is tightening around Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu as the old cases pending against him are getting revived one after the other.
Last week, YSR Congress party leader and Telugu Academy chairperson Nandamuri Lakshmi Parvathi revived the 14-year old Anti-Corruption Bureau case against Naidu by filing a fresh petition. The case is coming up for hearing shortly.
On Monday, it was the turn of YSR Congress MLA from Mangalagiri Alla Ramakrishna Reddy to push the TDP chief to a corner by knocking the doors of the Supreme Court over the cash-for-vote case pending against him.
Alla Ramakrishna Reddy filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking early hearing of the cash-for-vote case. Though he had filed the petition in 2017 itself, it has not come up for hearing. So, he filed a fresh petition on Monday.
In 2017, the Supreme Court admitted a petition filed Ramakrisihna Reddy seeking an inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the cash-for-vote scam in Telangana.
The SC, which has already been hearing a petition in the cash-for-vote scam, combined this public interest litigation petition with the main petition.
In his petition in 2017, Ramakrishna Reddy pointed out that it has been more than two years since the cash for vote had been brought to light by the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
“Yet, there has not been much progress in the case in the wake of some political developments. Therefore, the facts will come out only if the case is handed over to the CBI,” he said.
He said all the evidences were submitted to the ACB court, including the video tape showing then TDP legislator A Revanth Reddy giving cash to an independent MLA at the behest of Chandrababu Naidu and also the audio tape with the voice of Naidu which was confirmed by the forensic authorities.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Deepak Mishra heading the three-member bench then said a date would soon be fixed to hear the arguments in this case. But so far, the petition has not come up for hearing.
In the earlier petition, it was argued that Naidu should be taken as an accused in the cash for vote scam.
