Central Agencies Also Examining Skill Development Scam, This Shows Case Against Chandrababu Naidu Is Not State's Vendetta: AP CID Tells Supreme Court

Objecting to former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's plea for quashing of criminal proceedings in connection with a skill development scam in the state, the state police's crime investigation department (CID) cautioned the Supreme Court on Friday(October 13) against nipping the investigation at the bud at this stage. The state agency, in particular, emphasised the losses to the tune of hundreds of crores suffered by the public exchequer to highlight the seriousness of the allegations and the need for a probe.Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the State of Andhra Pradesh, disputed the petitioner's contention that this was a case of political vendetta or 'regime revenge' by pointing to the contemporaneous inquiries being conducted by central agencies like the Directorate of Goods and Services Tax (DGST), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and income tax authorities. "The number of central agencies examining the issue shows that this is not the state government's vendetta," the senior counsel insisted.A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi was hearing Naidu’s special leave petition challenging an order passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court last month declining to quash a first information report (FIR) arraigning the ex-chief minister as one of the accused in the scam. Naidu was arrested in connection with this case on September 9 by the AP CID and has been in custody since.The court started hearing Naidu's plea on October 3. It has mainly revolved around the applicability of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Section 17A, inserted in July 2018 by way of an amendment, mandates that the competent authority's prior sanction must be obtained before launching an investigation against a public servant. It is this provision that Naidu has cited to challenge his arrest by the Andhra Pradesh police's CID. The thrust of his argument is that the department did not obtain the governor's sanction before arraigning him as the 37th accused in the skill development scam case. On the first day of the hearing, the Justice Bose-led bench raised questions about whether the provision would apply to an offence predating the 2018 amendment that introduced it. The court also questioned whether Section 17A would be applicable when the FIR mentioned offences under both the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code, 1860. A battery of lawyers - including senior advocates Harish Salve, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Sidharth Luthra - appearing for Naidu, argued that Section 17A should be applicable since the inquiry commenced after the 2018 amendment, notwithstanding the date of the offence. On the contrary, the State, represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, contended that the inquiry began before 2018. The hearing was finally adjourned with an instruction to the state government to provide the entire compilation of documents submitted to the high court.The debate over the interpretation of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act continued on the subsequent two dates of hearing. On the next day, Salve argued that Section 17A was introduced to prevent instances of "regime revenge." Maintaining that the inquiry against Naidu only began in 2021, the senior counsel asserted that Naidu would be entitled to the protective cover of Section 17A. In this connection, he relied on the union government's standard operating procedure on Section 17A to argue that prior approval was required at every stage, from inquiry to the investigation. In response to this, the court asked the senior counsel if it could adopt an interpretation of the section that would "defeat the objectives of the act". Salve countered this by saying that the interpretation would strengthen the legislation, allowing public servants to act freely and instituting a framework of accountability for the investigating agency.On the last occasion, Salve argued that charges against the former chief minister under the Prevention of Corruption Act could not be separated from the criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and other charges under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. This was in response to a question posed during the previous hearings about whether the criminal proceedings could continue against Naidu even if the offences under the PC Act were dropped or did not survive. But even if the Prevention of Corruption Act is 'taken out', Salve said, it is not a sessions judge, but a magistrate who can grant a remand. This would mean the order remanding the legislator to custody would be denuded of jurisdiction and liable to be set aside, the senior counsel told the bench. Rohatgi, however, did not agree that the special court's remand order would become invalid if the offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act do not survive or are dropped on grounds of non-compliance with the prior sanction provision. Not that I am conceding that the PC Act 'goes', he said, but even if it does, the...

Central Agencies Also Examining Skill Development Scam, This Shows Case Against Chandrababu Naidu Is Not State's Vendetta: AP CID Tells Supreme Court

Awstika Das

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