A Division Bench of the High Court (HC) consisting of Justices U. Durga Prasad Rao and Kiranmayee Mandava on Monday heard arguments in the public interest litigation(PIL) filed by YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju for a court-monitored CBI inquiry into the State government’s alleged corrupt activities and illegal decisions and posted it for further hearing on February 15.
After the hearing began, the counsel for Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy sought a few days’ time to present the arguments on why his (CM’s) name should be struck off from the array of total 40 respondents, and on the maintainability of the petition.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ramakrishna Raju stated in his reply to the preliminary counter affidavit submitted by the Chief Minister that every pleading made by him pointed out the misuse and abuse of power by the latter and the conflict of interest concept in public offices has been repeatedly breached at the behest of the respondent.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s involvement in the wrongful decisions taken under the garb of public office to personally benefit him was clear, Mr. Ramakrishna Raju said, thereby asserting that the Chief Minister is a ‘just and necessary party’ for proper adjudication of the PIL. Therefore, the question of striking off the CM’s name from the list of respondents doesn’t arise and hence his prayer was liable to be dismissed in the interest of justice, Mr. Ramakrishna Raju said.
In the PIL filed by senior advocate Unnam Muralidhar Rao, the YSRCP MP alleged that there was large-scale embezzlement of public money in favour of some individuals and several private companies, for which Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, MP V. Vijay Sai Reddy, Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy and 36 others were to be held accountable.
