Andhra Pradesh state high court on Wednesday issued notices to senior Indian Police Service officer and former chief of Crime Investigation Department N Sanjay and former additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy in connection with the alleged violation of service rules during the previous Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
The high court was acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by United Forum for United Campaign president Satyanarayana questioning the propriety of Sanjay and Ponnavolu addressing a series of press conferences on the ongoing CID investigation into the AP Skill Development Corporation scam.
The CID named Telugu Desam Party president and present chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who was then in the opposition, as the prime accused in the Rs 371 crore skill development scam.
Naidu was also in Rajahmundry central jail for one and a half month in connection with the case.
Satyanarayana argued that being public servants, Sanjay and Ponnavolu should not address press conferences and reveal information about the skill development case to the media, at a time when the investigation was yet to be completed.
The high court asked Sanjay and Ponnavolu to file their replies in their individual capacity. It also asked state chief secretary, law secretary and principal secretary home to file a counter affidavit on behalf of the state government in the PIL.
The case was posted to September 9 for further hearing. It would be interesting to see what the government would say in the counter – whether it would defend Sanjay as the investigating officer or castigate him for addressing the press conference.
Since Sanjay is also still the state government service, it remains to be seen whether he will justify his action now or throw the blame on the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
