Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, in an order dated January 1, 2018, quashed proceedings in the case against Madhu Koneru and acquitted him of the charges framed by officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Emaar Properties land deal scam.
Mr. Koneru had moved the High Court citing Section 482 of Criminal Procedure Code praying that the pre-charge and post-cognizance proceedings initiated by the CBI in the Emaar case against him be quashed. Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao observed that there was no material to show that a conspiracy was hatched by Mr. Madhu Koneru as charged by the CBI.
The court also noted that no offence of criminal breach of trust and cheating — under Section 409 and Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code — was found to have been committed by the petitioner. In the verdict, the judge observed that the prosecution cannot rely on a few bits of information here and there to connect the accused with the crime.
