AP HC Adjourns Naidu's Plea for Anticipatory Bail in Liquor Scam to Today

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has heard Telugu Desam president Nara Chandrababu Nadu’s plea for grant of anticipatory bail in liquor scam case and adjourned the case for the next hearing to Thursday.

A single-judge bench of Justice T. Mallikarjuna Rao heard the arguments. Advocate-General S. Sriram submitted to the court that the previous Telugu Desam government withdrew the privilege fee to benefit select distilleries and bars. This resulted in a huge revenue loss to the state exchequer.

He argued that though it was mandatory on the part of the then TD government to consult the finance department, it failed to do so, and hence both the former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and former excise minister Kollu Ravindra abused their official position.

Whether or not Naidu and Ravindra got any monetary benefit would be found out in the course of investigations in the case, he said and added that a case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act could be booked against them.

He said that no proposal had been sent from the then excise commissioner for the withdrawal of the privilege fee as claimed by the petitioners. Such an issue was not discussed in the Cabinet and not presented before the Assembly.

The constitutional provisions would not provide any guarantee for taking decisions against public interest, he added.

Naidu’s counsel Nagamuthu submitted to the court that copies of the documents submitted by the A-G to the court were not given to them. The court directed the A-G to send copies of such documents to the petitioners and adjourned the case for the next hearing.