Vijayawada: ACB court verdict today

Vijayawada : The special ACB cases court in Vijayawada on Thursday adjourned to September 22 the hearing on a petition filed by the AP CID seeking the custody of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in the Skill Development Corporation scam.

Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy said the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court may deliver its verdict on Friday as arguments from both sides have been completed. The court is also expected to hear two other petitions, prisoner transit warrants, seeking Naidu's custody in AP FiberNet and Amaravati Inner Ring Road cases on Friday, said Special Public Prosecutor Y N Vivekananda, who is representing the Andhra Pradesh CID.

Initially, it was expected that the ACB court would give its verdict in the pre-lunch session, but the judge said she would deliver her order at 4 pm. When she came on to the bench, she enquired from the advocates if they had any communication about when the High Court would give its decision on the squash petition filed by Naidu.

The government lawyers said that they were not aware, the advocates representing Naidu said that they would know only when the cause list would be made available online on Thursday night.

The judge then told them that she would give her verdict on Friday morning as she would like to wait for the decision of the High Court on the squash petition. But the high court cause list did not list this case for Friday. What decision ACB court would now take remains to be seen. Further, the bail petition filed by Naidu in the Inner Ring Road case in the High Court has been posted to September 26.

Former CM Chandrababu Naidu was arrested on September 9, in connection with a case pertaining to the misappropriation of funds from the Skill Development Corporation, leading to an alleged loss of over Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer. He is currently lodged in the Rajamahendravaram central prison.