A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has directed the parties to the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Andhra Pradesh government in the case pertaining to Anne Sudheer Babu, a retired MRO, who is accused of committing irregularities in the assigned land transactions in Amaravati, to furnish the required documents by September 22, and posted the matter for final disposal to that date.
Mr. Sudheer Babu had allegedly tampered with assigned land records in Thullur mandal of Guntur district and got them registered in the name of some businessmen through fraudulent means.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court had stayed the investigation by the CID after he filed a quash petition. Thereafter, the State government filed the SLP in the Supreme Court.
State argument
Appearing for the State, senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and P.S. Narasimha said the impugned land transactions were part of a huge land scam in Amaravati and alleged that Mr. Sudheer Babu had forced persons belonging to the SC and ST communities to transfer their lands before the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) was executed in the capital.
The aggrieved were made to believe that the government would acquire their lands without compensation, and they could reap the expected benefit by transferring the lands to a person by name Brahmananda Reddy and others.
Justice Lavu Nageswara Rao said he was prima facie unhappy with the High Court order, and that there would be no further adjournments.
Presenting the arguments on behalf of the accused, advocate Sidharth Luthra pointed out that there were discrepancies in the translation of the FIR.
Justice Ravindra Bhat observed that even if there were changes in the FIR translation, that would be inconsequential.
