Amaravati land case: Former CM Chandrababu Naidu challenges CID FIR on him in Andhra High Court

The former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh was on Tuesday notified by the state CID to appear before the investigating officer

TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu filed a quash petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday, challenging the FIR and thereby the summons issued to him by the state CID in the alleged Amaravati land scam case.

The High Court, it is understood, would take up the petition on Friday.

The former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh was on Tuesday notified by the state Crime Investigation Department to appear before the investigating officer in its Vijayawada office on March 23.

The summon is for questioning in a case filed alleging that SC, ST assigned lands in the Amaravati capital region were procured deceitfully by persons close to then TDP government.

The FIR filed on March 12 named Naidu as primary accused and P Narayana, the municipal administration and urban development minister in Naidu's cabinet, as the second accused.

The notice giving one week's time further stated that Naidu is liable for arrest under Section 41 A of CrPC, for failure to attend/ comply with the terms of the notice.

A similar notice was issued to Narayana asking him to appear before the CID, a day before Naidu.

Read | Amaravati land case: AP-CID makes TDP chief Naidu accused No 1; asks him to appear for questioning

In the notices, Naidu and Narayana were asked by the CID to co-operate and to “not interfere with the investigation process either directly or indirectly and not to tamper or vanish the evidence.”

On Wednesday, the premises of Narayana, the founder of Narayana educational institutions, in Nellore were reportedly searched by the CID sleuths for documents related to the Amaravati land case.

The capital lands dispute

In 2015, about 33,000 acres of agricultural land was pooled by the Naidu government from the farmers of 29 villages in Amaravati for the construction of “a world class, mega capital,” in partnership with Singapore.

The Reddy government has been maintaining that Naidu's family, benamis and other TDP leaders have benefited enormously from surreptitious land deals executed before the December 2014 declaration of Amaravati in Guntur district as the new capital region of AP.

The present FIR on Naidu and Narayana is based on a complaint of YSRCP MLA Alla Rama Krishna Reddy.

In his February 24 complaint, the Mangalagiri MLA said that the “middlemen part of the conspiracy made the farmers of his constituency believe that the government would take away their lands without providing compensation.”

On Thursday, MLA Alla appeared before the CID to present his arguments. Alla is alleging that about 500 acres of SC, ST assigned lands were procured at a throw away price in Mangalagiri alone, causing “irreparable loss to the weaker sections”.

“If Naidu is innocent, he should prove it by appearing for the CID examination,” Alla said.

The CID cops say that the March 12 FIR on Naidu was registered, after a preliminary probe. Naidu, Narayana and other officials were booked under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989, AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act 1977 and various sections of the IPC dealing with offenses like criminal conspiracy, public servant disobeying laws with intent to save offenders.

TDP leaders have termed the case as frivolous and the notices “a continuation of the political vendetta by Jagan.”