Andhra HC reserves order on Chandrababu Naidu's bail plea in Inner Ring Road scam case

Lokesh is now expected to appear a week later on October 10, accompanied by lawyers whose presence will be at an inaudible distance during questioning.Moreover, Lokeshs anticipatory bail plea in the FiberGrid case was debunked by the CID that he is not even an accused person yet in that case, assuring that it will follow the procedure of serving him a notice under CrPC Section 41 A in the eventuality of the requirement of further action.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment on TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu's bail plea in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road scam case.

The Inner Ring Road scam case pertains to manipulating the master plan of Amaravati capital city, alignment of Inner Ring Road and the seed capital to allegedly offer undue enrichment to several companies during Naidu's tenure as chief minister. During the court proceedings, the CID informed that Naidu has not been arrested in the IRR scam case and it has filed applications in the special court asking the former CM to be produced before it to formally arrest and take him into police custody.

Naidu, virtually represented by Siddarth Luthra, filed an application that if an FIR has been registered against an accused person in the same police station and arrested in that case then it shall be deemed that he has been arrested in all his pending cases in that particular police station.

However, the CID denied that the deemed custody concept is not applicable in this case. Further, the CID noted that deemed custody is not applicable as it has already filed police custody and prisoner on transit warrant applications against Naidu in the FiberGrid and IRR cases in the Vijayawada ACB Court.

The CID observed that the deemed custody is not applicable when these petitions are pending before the court and hence bail for Naidu is not maintainable.

In light of this argument, Naidu's lawyer appealed to the court to treat his bail application as anticipatory bail. The CID contended that there would either be bail or anticipatory bail but not both.

It also highlighted that anticipatory bail cannot be taken up when police custody petitions are pending.

Meanwhile, the CID has exempted Naidu's son and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh from bringing Heritage Foods Ltd's bank account details as part of the notice it has served to him for questioning in the IRR case. The CID has also agreed to give more time for Lokesh to appear for questioning. Lokesh is now expected to appear a week later on October 10, accompanied by lawyers whose presence will be at an inaudible distance during questioning.

Moreover, Lokesh's anticipatory bail plea in the FiberGrid case was debunked by the CID that he is not even an accused person yet in that case, assuring that it will follow the procedure of serving him a notice under CrPC Section 41 A in the eventuality of the requirement of further action.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)