Cash-for-vote scam: AP CM moves HC for quashing of complaint

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday filed a petition in the Hyderabad High Court seeking quashinf of a private complaint filed against him in the cash-for-vote case.

The petition will come up for hearing on Friday.

Naidu sought quashing of the recent order passed by an ACB court directing the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate allegations made against him in the complaint filed by YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy with regard to the cash-for-vote case allegedly involving TDP's Telangana MLA A Revanth Reddy.

In May 2015, nominated MLA in Telangana Assembly Elvis Stephenson had lodged a complaint alleging that he was offered Rs 5 crore by Revanth Reddy to vote for TDP nominee in the election to the Telangana Legislative Council on June 1.

Ramakrishna Reddy in his petition alleged that Naidu was also a conspirator in the case and committed the offence of offering bribe to Stephenson.

Naidu in his plea said, "On merits, it is submitted that the petitioner (Naidu) has not committed any offence much less as alleged by the respondent herein/complainant. The petitioner denies all the allegations made against him in the complaint."

Three days back, the ACB court had directed the anti-graft agency to submit a report on its investigation into the case on September 30. Following this direction, the ACB had informed the court that it is already investigating the case and there was no need for a separate FIR.

Naidu alleged that Ramakrishna Reddy levelled allegations against him with the sole intention to "embarrass, harass and wreak political vengeance (with malafide intentions)" againsthim (Naidu) as he (Reddy) belongs to a rival (YSR Congress) party.

The chief minister said that the ACB court had passed directions without considering the fact that the ACB had investigated and filed a charge sheet in the case.

"It is submitted that the order of the special judge directing investigation and report under Section 156(3) CrPC after the filling of the charge sheet on July 27, 2015, is legally impermissible since the power under section 156(3) is not available at that stage," Naidu said.

On May 31, 2015, the ACB had arrested Revanth Reddy, Bishop Sebastian Harry and Rudra Udaya Simha when they were allegedly handing over an advance sum of Rs 50 lakh to Stephenson. TDP MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah was arrested in the case later. All of them were subsequently granted bail.

A charge sheet filed by the ACB on July 27 last year had mentioned Naidu's name, but not as an accused.

An audio tape of Naidu's purported conversation with Stephenson over phone on May 30, a day before the ACB arrested Revanth, had found its way to the media.