Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has got a reprieve for at least another seven months in the sensational cash-for-vote scandal case.
The Supreme Court, hearing a petition filed by YSR Congress party MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, on Thursday declared that it would take up the hearing on a petition in July, after the conclusion of summer vacations.
Senior counsel for Ramakrishna Reddy requested that the court fix a specific date for hearing. Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, whose bench is hearing the case, said the date would be mentioned in the written orders.
Prashant Bhushan argued that Chandrababu Naidu had a role in the cash-for-vote scandal, but the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana police did not include his name as one of the accused.
He pointed out that the charge-sheet filed by the ACB had mentioned Naidu’s name as many as 37 times in the cash-for-vote case. Yet, Naidu was not questioned by the ACB as an accused. He requested that the SC take up the case expeditiously.
He also requested that the Supreme Court order a thorough investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation into the role of Chandrababu Naidu in the cash-for-vote case.
He reminded that the SC bench itself had directed completion of hearing in the cases involving political leaders and delivery of judgements.
In fact, Ramakrishna Reddy had first filed petition before the Supreme Court in January 2018 seeking a probe against Naidu, but the case was not listed.
Later, Ramakrishna Reddy moved the Supreme Court again in November 2019 itself requesting for an early hearing on his petition for initiating a CBI probe into the role of the TDP president vote-for-note scam. He pleaded that Naidu be included as an accused in the case.
It may be recalled that present Telangana Congress working president and then TDP legislator A Revanth Reddy had allegedly offered money to nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson to vote for TDP MLC nominee and in the process, Revanth made the nominated MLA to speak with Naidu over phone.
