Dr K Kesava Rao rules out halt on probe
TRS leader brushed aside reports that the Centre and the Governor could intervene in the investigations
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-06-29 01:01 GMT
Hyderabad: TRS general secretary and MP Dr K. Kesava Rao on Sunday said no one could either interfere with or stall the Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation into the cash-for-vote scam. Speaking to media here, the senior TRS leader brushed aside reports that the Centre and the Governor could intervene in the investigations.
“The legal process is presently going on in the scam. No law will permit them to do so. Finally courts will decide on the offence. It is a criminal case, how can someone meddle with it?” he asked. Referring to the demands from AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Cabinet colleagues seeking the invocation of Section 8 of the AP Reorganisation Act — to give control of law and order in the common capital to the Governor — Dr Kesava Rao said it would require an amendment to the Constitution. “Without that it is just not possible to interfere with powers of the TS government,” he said.
He recalled that finance minister Arun Jaitley, while participating in the debate on the bifurcation Act last year in the Rajya Sabha, had pointed out deficiencies in Section 8. Referring to Entry 80 of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, Dr Rao said that law and order is the exclusive domain wrested with the state and even the Centre cannot interfere unless there is a breakdown of constitutional machinery in a particular state.
“India is a federal state. The law and order subject cannot be exercised by the Governor and the Centre cannot transfer these power wrested in the (state) Council of Ministers,” he said.