The Supreme Court has sought a response from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a plea seeking the annulment of the bail granted to Reddy in a disproportionate assets case.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal issued a notice to Reddy and the investigative agency in response to a plea filed by disgruntled YSR Congress MP Raghu Ramakrishna Raju.
“Issue notice. The Registry to place the cases before an appropriate court in the first week of January 2024, after seeking a direction from Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India,” stated the bench.
Earlier, the apex court had sought responses from the CBI and Reddy on a plea urging the transfer of the trial of the disproportionate assets case, currently pending before a court in Hyderabad, Telangana, to a court in another state, preferably the Patiala House Court in the national capital. Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti issued notice to the CBI on the transfer petition filed by Raju and instructed the probe agency to explain the delay in completing the trial.
The plea highlighted that the petitioner, as a Member of Parliament, was deeply concerned about the alleged manipulation of the state machinery, specifically the CBI, to favor the sitting Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Raju alleged that the chief minister, after unjustly enriching himself and causing substantial losses to the public exchequer, ensured the criminal trial against him remained stagnant.
According to Raju’s plea, the disproportionate assets case, registered in 2012, led to the filing of 11 chargesheets by the CBI, resulting in 11 additional cases. The petitioner criticized the state machinery, represented by the CBI, for allegedly becoming passive spectators to what he termed an abuse of the court processes, transforming criminal trials into “friendly matches” between the accused and the prosecution.
