New Delhi, January 8
The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a petition by two Congress leaders for a CBI probe into the assets of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Andhra Pradesh Congress general secretary K.R. Amos and MLA in the dissolved Assembly Kanna Lakshmi Narayana had alleged that Naidu had acquired assets worth “Rs 76 crore or more” after assuming power a decade ago. It was disproportionate to his known sources of income, they said.
A Bench comprising Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha told counsel for the two Congress leaders that they should first move the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
When their counsel, a former AP Advocate General, S. Ramachandra Rao, submitted that the High Court had earlier dismissed a petition in this regard on technical ground that since the Governor was made a party in the case, no writ of mandamous could be issued against him.
Rao said since an appeal against the High Court order was still pending before the Supreme Court, the present petition needed to be heard by it. “Moving the High Court would only result in delaying the matter,” he said.
The Bench told him that if there was any delay in the proceedings before the High Court, the petitioners could approach the apex court at an appropriate stage.
Amos and Narayana had alleged in their public interest litigation (PIL) that Naidu, in an affidavit before the High Court in 1988, had stated that his only source of income was agriculture, which was Rs 36,000 annually. But in his statement before the Assembly Speaker in April 1999, he had said that his total assets were worth Rs 19.29 crore.
However, the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly had then placed documents before the House to show his assets worth Rs 56 crore, they said. They had documentary proof to show that his actual assets were worth Rs 76 core or more, they added.
