VIJAYAWADA: The Supreme Court has partially allowed a petition filed by the Crime Investigation Department seeking to set aside the Vijayawada ACB Court’s order granting bail to YSRCP leader and Rajampet MP PV Mithun Reddy in the alleged liquor scam case.
Delivering the order on Friday, Justice Venkata Jyotirmayi Pratapa noted that the ACB Court had referred to several issues in its bail order that went beyond its scope of review. The court noted that some of the observations made in the bail order may hamper the ongoing investigation of the case.
The court noted that the investigation against Mithun Reddy is not over yet and the investigating agency has not filed a chargesheet so far. Despite this, the ACB Court had made observations in its order suggesting that the investigation was over.
In this context, the SC stayed the implementation of certain observations made by the ACB Court in the bail order but refused to cancel the bail of Mithun Reddy. Accordingly, the petition was dismissed.
It may be recalled that the CID had approached the HC challenging the ACB Court’s September 29 order granting bail to Mithun Reddy, who is listed as the fourth accused in the case.
During the hearing, senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for the prosecution, argued that certain observations in the ACB Court’s order weakened the prosecution’s case and could affect the investigation. They contended that the trial court had questioned the admissibility of the evidence, including the Google Takeout data and the statements recorded under Sections 161 and 164 of the CrPC.
