When YSR Congress party led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was in power in Andhra Pradesh, the Crime Investigation Department of the state police filed several cases against Telugu Desam Party leaders including its president N Chandrababu Naidu, his son Nara Lokesh and the erstwhile cabinet colleagues of Naidu.
Right from Skill Development Corporation scam, the CID filed cases against Naidu and others in connection with alleged irregularities in AP Fibernet, Amaravati inner ring road, assigned lands case, liquor distilleries case etc.
The CID cases are still pending in the ACB court and even in the high court. Naidu, who was arrested in skill development corporation scam and jailed for nearly 52 days, has finally come out on bail.
Now that the TDP came to power and Naidu has become the chief minister, it is obvious that all these would get diluted, as the CID is now under the control of the chief minister himself. In fact, even before Naidu assumed charge, the authorities have sealed the office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the CID office premises at Mangalagiri.
A senior journalist on Friday filed a public interest litigation in the state high court asking for handing over of all the CID cases filed against Naidu and others by the previous government to the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, so that the present government would not dilute them.
The journalist alleged that right from the day of election results, some senior officials have started favouring the ruling TDP leaders.
“Under these circumstances, the state CID police would not be able to proceed with the cases against the chief minister and others. So, these cases should be handed over to the central investigation agencies,” he said.
Apart from Naidu, those who were made respondents in the case are: Nara Lokesh, P Narayana, K Atchennaidu, Kollu Ravindra, Chintamaneni Prabhakar, former minister Devineni Umamaheshwar Rao, industrialist Lingamaneni Ramesh and former official Vemuru Harikrishna, besides principal secretary of home department Harish Kumar Gupta.
The petitioner alleged that Gupta had ordered locking of economic offences wing of the CID and driven away all the officials who were probing the cases against Naidu and others.
“This is highly illegal, unilateral and highhanded attitude,” he charged.
The journalist further said all the evidences in these high profile cases are being tampered with in favour of the accused.
“Several officials who were investigating the cases have been transferred. They are being threatened of severe action in the name of red book,” he alleged.