High Court refers PIL on Jagan to Centre

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, Jun 20 : The AP High Court dismissed on Wednesday a PIL to retain V.V. Lakshminarayana, CBI joint director, till completion of the ongoing probe into the illegal investments case of YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. However, the court directed the Centre to file a counter affidavit in the other prayer in the PIL, seeking sanction for prosecution of some IAS officers allegedly involved in the case.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice G. Rohini was dealing with the PIL by Kutumba Rao, a resident of Chittoor, seeking retention of the CBI joint director and seeking a direction to the Centre to sanction prosecution against officers involved in the case.

The bench asked P Kesava Rao, counsel for the CBI whether the ongoing probe would be hampered by the transfer of Lakshmi Narayana and also about the stage of investigation.

The counsel replied that Lakshmi Narayana, as CBI joint director, was only a supervisory officer in the case being investigated by a team of officers headed by a chief investigating officer of DIG rank. He clarified that the investigation would not be hampered as the chief investigating officer in the case was not transferred.

He told the court that any officer of a particular state cadre can continue for a maximum period of deputation in the Centre of only seven years. He said that Lakshminarayana was already relieved from charge and a new joint director had assumed charge in his place.

After the reply of the CBI counsel, the bench declared that the prayer in the petition for retention of the official had become infructuous. The petitioner urged the bench to consider his other prayer in his PIL and direct the Centre to sanction prosecution of IAS officers involved in the case.

PIL against KCR withdrawn

Y. Balaji Vadera, a practicing lawyer of the city on Wednesday, withdrew his PIL seeking a direction to the CBI to conduct a preliminary probe against TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and TRS MLA T.

Harish Rao based on the complaint lodged by suspended TRS party leader Raghunandan Rao alleging that Chandrasekhar Rao and Harish Rao had amassed wealth by extorting money from industrialists and businessmen by using the TRS as a decoy.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice G. Rohini asked the petitioner to explain the basis for his plea. He replied that the complaint made by Raghunandan Rao is the basis and the CBI has been not acting on it.

The Chief Justice retorted, “It (High Court) is not a magisterial court to entertain such petitions. If you feel that the CBI is not registering the case, approach the CBI court and file a complaint seeking direction to CBI for registration of the case.” The bench said there were inconclusive details in the petition and asked the petitioner to approach the court with full information.