The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday posted for September 18 the petition filed by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu seeking to quash the case against him in the alleged multi-crore state Skill Development Corporation scam, reports The Indian Express.
The High Court directed the Andhra Pradesh CID to file a counter affidavit and stayed its petition for Naidu’s custody to September 18. Another petition filed by the former CM seeking anticipatory bail in the Amaravati inner ring road alleged irregularities has also been posted to the same date.
The High Court was to hear the lunch motion petition filed by Naidu’s legal team challenging his arrest. Naidu was represented by senior Supreme Court counsel Sidharth Luthra, while Additional Advocate General P Sudhakar Reddy put forward the government’s view.
His counsel said that CID did not follow the laid down procedure (Section 17(A)(c) of the PC Act 2018) while taking the Naidu’s custody.
The TDP chief was arrested in connection with a fraud case involving misappropriation of funds from the Skill Development Corporation, leading to a loss of over Rs 300 crore to the state government, during his government’s tenure between 2014-2019, AP CID Chief N Sanjay had said after the arrest.
Naidu was arrested in an early morning operation on Saturday from Nandyal.
On Sunday evening an ACB court in Vijayawada had sent him to 14-day judicial custody, and was shifted to Rajahmundry Central jail, 200 km from Vijayawada.
Following a petition filed by Naidu on Sunday to convert his judicial remand into house arrest, the ACB court on Tuesday declined his house arrest request that was filed based on alleged threat to his life while in jail, saying that there was no threat to his life and he would be secure in prison.
The former CM’s lawyers had argued that Naidu, who has Z-plus security, faces threat to his life at the Rajahmundry Central Jail.