The Supreme Court Monday declined to grant bail to Andhra Pradesh IAS officer Y. Srilakshmi, allegedly involved in the Obulapuram mining scam, saying she should approach the trial court for this.
The apex court said she should approach the trial court as a supplementary chargesheet against her has already been filed.
“When the chargesheet is filed, why don’t you go to the trial court and seek regular bail,” senior counsel L. Nageshwar Rao, appearing for Srilakshmi, was asked by an apex court bench of Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice C.K. Prasad.
Justice Dattu told Nageshwar Rao: “You tell the special CBI court trying the case that investigation is complete. My presence is no more required. Since I am an IAS officer I will not disappear.”
The court said this when Rao told it that there was nothing new in the charge sheet except for one paragraph concerning his client’s role. The senior counsel told the court that all that has been said by the high court against Srilakshmi would be read against her by the lower court.
Nageshwar Rao told the court that the high court has given its findings on merit.
At this the court said that it would make it clear in its order that trial court would decide on the bail application without being influenced by the observation made by the high court.
Having said this, the court in its order said that the trial court would decide the application in accordance with law and without being influenced by the high court order.
The high could while cancelling the bail of Srilakshmi that was granted by the special CBI court had questioned her action of “tampering with evidence including influencing the witnesses”.
The high court by its Jan 6 order had cancelled Srilakshmi’s bail granted by the special CBI court and had directed her to surrender. Though she moved the apex court but in the absence of any relief she had to surrender and was taken into custody.
