The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea of the Andhra Pradesh government's petition challenging the anticipatory bail granted to former CM and TDP chief N Chandrababu in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road scam case.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta dismissed the petition
The Andhra government challenged the high court order that granted bail to the former Andhra CM.
The bench noted that an appeal in the case arising from the same FIR involving other accused, was already dismissed by the court last year.
It said in view of the earlier order passed by the top court, the bench is not inclined to entertain the appeal of the state government. However, the bench clarified that the Andhra government would be at liberty to move for cancellation of bail in the lower courts.
"In view of the aforesaid position, we are not inclined to issue notice in present SLP and same is disposed of in terms of the order passed in the other SLP. We however clarify that observations made in impugned order would not affect the investigation...Further in the event respondent do not cooperate, petitioner would be at liberty to move for cancellation of bail in the courts below." the bench said in its order.
In October 2023, the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted anticipatory bail to Naidu in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road case.
The Amaravati Inner Ring Road case is related to accusations of tampering with the master plan of Amaravati, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh. The allegations include modifying the alignment of the Inner Ring Road and misusing the seed capital to offer undue enrichment to multiple companies during the regime of former Chief Minister Naidu.
In the same case, three more individuals connected to former minister P Narayana - R Sambasiva Rao, P Pramila, and P Rama Devi - filed anticipatory bail pleas.