Published Oct 16, 2023 | 6:09 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 16, 2023 | 6:09 PM
AP ex-minister P Narayana. (Wikimedia)
The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday, 16 October, adjourned the hearing of the Amaravati Assigned Land case to 1 November after the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) requested the court to consider additional audio and video evidence that it had collected before delivering the verdict.
The high court, which was slated to deliver its verdict in the case on Monday, asked the respondents to file counters if they had objections to reopening the case.
The CID produced audio files as additional evidence in the case, and said that it could produce videos in support of its charge.
The counsels appearing for former minister P Narayana objected to the submission of new evidence, contending that when the verdict was to be delivered, it was not appropriate to file fresh petitions.
They objected to the CID producing as evidence something that was already produced in another case.
The case pertains to Mangalagiri MLA Alla Rama Krishna Reddy’s complaint, in which he alleged that the TDP leaders had purchased “assigned lands” at a throwaway price. Following the allegation, the CID registered an FIR on 12 March 2021.
Assigned lands are government lands that have been provided free, or at nominal cost, under welfare schemes to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), or under some scheme for the landless poor.
The CID named Narayana as the Accused No 2 (A2) in the casde, while listing former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu as Accused No 1 (A1).
The investigators have so far arrested five people in the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfer) Act.
The CID recently obtained audio-visual statements of a close relative of former municipal administration minister P Narayana, the A2 in assigned lands case.
The tapes reportedly detail how the former minister had bought the assigned lands illegally from farmers in more than two dozen villages in the proposed Amaravati capital region during the TDP’s tenure between 2014 and 2019, which Chandrababu Naidu was chief minister.
The land was purchased with the help of Narayana’s relatives, employees, and middlemen from the farmers belonging to SCs, STs, and Backward Classes (BCs).
They were told that the state government was the rightful owner, and it would take over the land without providing any compensation and, therefore, it would be wise for them to sell their lands.
The high court also adjourned to Wednesday, 18 October, the hearing on an anticipatory bail petition moved by Chandrababu Naidu in the alleged Amaravati Inner Ring Road scam.
On Friday, 13 October, the Andhra Pradesh government had told the Supreme Court that it would not arrest former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the Fibernet case until 18 October.
It said it would seek adjournment of the matter listed before the trial court on 16 October, as the Supreme Court had deferred the hearing on Naidu’s plea for anticipatory bail to 17 October, along with his plea for quashing the FIR in the ₹371-crore skill development scam.
Naidu is currently in judicial custody in the case at the Rajamahendravaram Central Jail. He was arrested in a pre0dawn sweep at Nandyal on 9 September.
