In a setback to the Andhra Pradesh government, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to cancel the anticipatory bail granted to senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former minister Ponguru Narayana and others in the inner ring road alignment and Amaravati city master plan case.
A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice B R Gavai and Justice Nagaratna pulled up the state government’s counsel for approaching the apex court even on smaller issues out of political vengeance.
Reacting to the state government counsel’s argument that Narayana and others were not cooperating with the investigation into the case, the government could approach the lower court.
“You can file a petition in the high court seeking cancellation of bail of the accused if the accused do not cooperate. Please don’t make Supreme Court a party to your political vengeance,” the bench said.
On September 7, the state high court granted anticipatory bail to Narayana and others, whose names figured in the case registered by the CID with respect to alleged land dealings in the guise of inner ring road alignment and Amaravati capital city master plan.
The CID had earlier filed a case against TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, former minister Narayana and others based on a complaint filed by Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy alleging that land deals had taken place in the name of change in Amaravati inner ring road alignment design.
Narayana, realtor Lingamaneni Ramesh, his brother Lingamaneni Venkata Surya Rajasekhar, Ramakrishna Housing Limited director KVP Anjani Kumar and others were named as accused by the CID in the case.
The court asked the petitioners not to leave the country till a charge-sheet is filed and said they have to take the permission of the court, if they want to leave the country. The petitioners were asked to submit two bonds of Rs 50,000 each.
