Founder of YSR Congress Party and Kadapa Member of Parliament Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court questioning an interim order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court directing a preliminary enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into his alleged ill-gotten wealth.
Acting on a batch of petitions from P. Shankar Rao and others, the High Court on July 12 directed the CBI to conduct the preliminary enquiry into the wealth of the petitioner, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, from 2004 onwards and submit a report.
Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, in his special leave petition, pointed out that the preliminary enquiry had been ordered based purely on a letter sent by a sitting Minister in the State government to the Chief Justice of the High Court without even any FIR or criminal complaint having been filed.
He alleged that the petition against him by a political rival was filed at the behest of the Congress party high command in view of his growing popularity. When both, the Central and State governments, were ruled by the Congress party, political rivals like the petitioner had reason to apprehend about the motives.
He said it was clear that the petition by Mr. Shankar Rao was only an invidious attempt to take away every swell of political and public support the petitioner enjoyed and to downgrade the image of his hugely popular late father Y.S. Rajasekara Reddy.
Contending that the petition filed by his rival was not maintainable, he pointed out that final relief had been granted even without calling upon the government to respond. He said no credible material had been placed on record, except what had already been circulated widely by the Telugu Desam Party. He said although the so-called wrong-doings had been committed from 2004 onwards, the letter was sent only in November 2010, more than six years later and immediately Mr. Shankar Rao was made a Minister.
Quoting a number of Supreme Court judgments, the petitioner said the court could not allow itself to become a tool in the hands of a rival in converting a political battle into a war on the turf of the court. Pointing that High Courts could not be converted into police stations and criminal proceedings could not be initiated under writ proceedings, he said the Andhra Pradesh had entertained this mischievous and motivation petition. The SLP sought quashing of the impugned order and an interim stay of its operation.
