Saturday, April 26, 2008

AG defended dropping of charges on officer

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, April 24 : The Advocate-General, C V Mohan Reddy on Thursdayinformed the AP High Court that the government is prepared to place allrelevantrecords in the court pertaining to dropping of corruption charges againstMohammad Quamaruddin, the Engineer-in -Chief of the Tribal WelfareDepartment.While dealing with the petition filed by Mr. P Narender Reddy of Nalgondadistrict challenging the government order issued for dropping chargesagainst theengineer-in-chief, the judge agreed to peruse the records and asked the AG to submit them by Friday.It may be mentioned that the petitioner informed the court that the engineer-in-chief is the brother-in-law of principal secretary to the chief minister,Mr. JannatHussain.The petitioner alleged that Mr Hussain holding a top post in the ChiefMinster's office, was able to get an order on April 28, 2007 dropping further actionagainsthis brother- in-law.
While arguing the case, Mr Mohan Reddy said that the petitioner was a sleeping partner of the firm which executed works at a textile park at Malkapur village inNalgonda district where alleged irregularities took place.
"Withdrawing charges against the officials is a prerogative of the government. The charges were dropped against the official after the government was satisfied by theexplanation submitted by the official".said the AG
Justice Rammohan Rao observed that: "The petitioner informed the court that Rs35,000 were paid to the official as a bribe. When such serious allegationsare made against an official, why the government has not initiated any action against him".
The case was posted to Monday.

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