The Supreme Court has expressed surprise over the filing of a petition by rebel YSR Congress party MP from Narasapur parliamentary constituency Kanumuru Raghu Ramakrishna Raju in seeking transfer of the CBI cases pending against party president and Andhra Pradesh Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy from Hyderabad CBI court to another state, as the cases are getting unusually delayed.
However, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice S V N Bhatti on Friday served notices on the CBI asking it to file an affidavit explaining why the cases against Jagan are getting inordinately delayed and no progress was made even after more than 10 years.
The apex court also issued notices to Jagan and others involved in the case to file their counter and posted the case to January.
In his petition, Raghu Ramakrishna Raju said the cases against Jagan were getting delayed unusually as he was not cooperating. He brought to the notice of the court that the case was deferred as many as 3,071 times in the last 10 years.
The CBI also gave exemption to Jagan from personal appearance in the court and he, and his co-accused filed hundreds of discharge petitions in the case only to delay the trial, he alleged.
However, the Supreme Court questioned the locus standi of Raju in filing the petition. The bench wondered in what way Raju was concerned with the alleged illegal assets cases against Jagan, which are being probed by the CBI.
“He is neither complainant nor the victim in these cases. He is only a third party in the case. What is his interest in filing the petition?” the court asked.
His counsel, however, said though Raju was not a complainant, he has every right to file the case as a citizen of India.
When the court asked the lawyer whether Raju, as an opposition leader, has any political interest in the petition, the lawyer said the MP belonged to the ruling party and not the opposition.
