Justice Sunil Chowdary of the High Court quashed the order passed by Special Judge, ACB cases, wherein a direction was given to investigate the alleged role of N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, in the cash-for-vote case.

The judge was allowing the case filed by Naidu, challenging the order passed by the Principal Special Judge for Anti-Corruption Bureau, Hyderabad, to act upon the fresh complaint filed by YSR Congress MLA A Ramakrishna Reddy.

The ACB court had entertained the application filed by the YSRCP leader and had ordered registration of a fresh FIR.

Naidu questioned the jurisdiction of the ACB court to order a fresh FIR in the High Court. In September, another single judge had granted a stay on the order of the ACB court, and final arguments were over last month.

The judge dealt with the alleged telephone conversation of the CM with the de facto complainant relied upon by the YSRCP leader. In the absence of any legal authenticity, it is not safe to place reliance, even for taking cognizance.

The court said that if the order of special judge of ACB court is allowed to stay there will be second FIR and this is not permissible under law.

The case relates to TDP MLA Revanth Reddy and others for allegedly seeking to bribe a nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson in the MLC polls. Stephenson had lodged a complaint alleging he was offered ₹5 crore by Revanth Reddy to vote for the TDP-backed nominee to the Telangana Legislative Council.

Revanth Reddy, Bishop Sebastian Harry and Rudra Udaya Simha were arrested by the ACB when they were allegedly handing over ₹50 lakh to Stephenson.

Naidu had accused the TRS government for illegally tapping phones.

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