Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu have moved the Supreme Court to challenge an FIR filed against him by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (APCID) in connection with the multi-crore AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) scandal. Naidu’s appeal to the Supreme Court comes in response to the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s decision on September 22, which declined to quash the FIR, and the judicial remand order dated September 10, 2023.
In his plea, Naidu argues that his arrest was carried out unlawfully, depriving him of his liberty for purely political motives, while ignoring the fact that all actions were initiated without obtaining the sanction mandated by Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The High Court found that the plea lacked merit, stating that it could not conduct a mini-trial based on a petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Justice K Sreenivasa Reddy, in a 68-page order, noted that the APCID, which initiated the case in 2021, had interviewed over 140 witnesses and collected more than 4,000 documents related to the case. Given that the investigation is on the verge of reaching its conclusion, the court declined to interfere with the ongoing proceedings. Following the rejection of Naidu’s quash petition, the Anti-Corruption Bureau special court granted the APCID two-day custody of the former Chief Minister for questioning regarding the APSSDC scandal.
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