Hyderabad: Rebel MP of Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress Party K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju has moved Telangana High Court challenging CBI court’s order dismissing his petition for cancellation of bail given to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy in the quid pro quo case.
However, the High Court registry sent back Raju’s petition on technical grounds. He is likely to file a fresh petition.
The CBI court headed by principal special judge had last month dismissed his petition.
Raju had filed the petition in April this year seeking cancellation of bail of Jagan and his close aide Vijaya Sai on the ground of alleged violation of bail conditions.
Raju, a member of the Lok Sabha from Narsapur, had also voiced the apprehension that Jagan Mohan Reddy may try to influence the witnesses in the case.
However, both Jagan Mohan Reddy and Vijaya Sai Reddy had submitted to the court that they did not violate any bail conditions. They claimed that Raju filed the petition for political and personal gains.
In his counter-affidavit, Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that Raju is trying to use court as a platform to settle personal scores. He described the MP as a dishonest man, who defrauded banks.
Describing Raju’s petition as an attempt to tarnish his reputation, Jagan claimed that the petitioner failed to make out a case for cancellation of bail.
Before the pronouncement of orders by the CBI court, the MP had also approached Telangana High Court seeking transfer of his petitions to any other court. However, the High Court dismissed his plea.
The High Court had observed that there should be reasonable grounds for seeking transfer of a case from one court to the other. The court felt that the petitioner is seeking the transfer on imaginary grounds.
Raju while seeking the transfer of petition had expressed his apprehensions citing the permission given by the trial court to Vijaya Sai Reddy to undertake foreign tours.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had opposed Raju’s petition. Its counsel submitted to the court that judges deliver such reliefs to scores of individuals.
The allegations against Jagan Mohan Reddy relate to the period 2004-2009, when his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh.
The CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probed the allegations that Jagan Mohan Reddy, in criminal conspiracy with others, received bribes from various persons/companies in the guise of investments in his group companies as ‘quid pro quo’ for undue favours granted to them by the then Andhra Pradesh government.
Jagan Mohan Reddy was arrested in May 2012 in the DA case when he was an MP. In 2013, the special CBI court had granted conditional bail to Jagan, after he spent 16 months in jail.