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Kodela exonerated by High Court

By Our Legal Correspondent

HYDERABAD FEB. 19. A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday upheld the action of the Union of India in refusing to grant consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, Cabinet Minister, in the Narasaraopet bomb blast case.

The Bench dismissed a writ petition filed by Kodapalli Venkateswarlu.

It may be recalled that bombs went off in a building owned by Dr. Kodela Sivaprasada Rao at Narasaraopet in 1999 in the run-up to the Assembly elections, killing several persons in the building, which led to a political storm. The TDP leader claimed that the house was given away on lease and he had nothing to do with the activity therein.

Another Division Bench of the High Court had ordered a CBI inquiry into the case. When the required permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs was not given the CBI dropped the case. The present writ petition is filed challenging the action of the Union Home Ministry in refusing permission.

The Division Bench, comprising the Acting Chief Justice, Motilal B. Naik, and the judge, Rohini, initially directed the Central Government's standing counsel to produce the relevant records. The bench, which delivered the 19-page judgment, did not appreciate the action of the writ petitioner in filing such a case under public interest when he is a political opponent of the Minister. The Bench perused the records submitted to them and concurred with the view of the Attorney-General who felt that the investigation did not reveal any nexus between the blast and the Minister. The writ petition was dismissed.

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