Hyderabad: In a big relief to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N .Chandrababu Naidu, the Hyderabad High Court Friday stayed the orders of Telangana Special Court to the state Anti Corruption Bureau for fresh probe in to the cash for vote scam.

Hearing the petition filed by Chandrababu Naidu, Justice Raja Elango directed the ACB to file its counter for the full hearing of the case after eight weeks.

In his petition Chandrababu Naidu had sought the quashing of the orders of the ACB Court that the Anti Corruption Bureau should register a fresh FIR and reinvestigate the case in which a Telugu Desam MLA A. Revanth Reddy was caught red-handed offering bribe to Telangana legislator Elvis Stephenson to vote for the TDP in Legislative Council Elections.

While the counsel for the petitioner argued that the YSR Congress MLA A Ramakrishna Reddy had approached the ACB court against Chandrababu Naidu with a political motive, the counsel for the ACB told the judge that the Bureau’s investigation was continuing in the cash for vote scam. The ACB has also informed the lower court about it, the counsel said.

After hearing the arguments of both the sides, Justice Elango asked the counsel for ACB to file a detailed counter and adjourned the hearing of the petition for eight weeks.

Naidu in his petition filed yesterday had questioned the locus standi of a YSRCP MLA, A. Ramakrishna Reddy, in approaching the Telangana ACB court seeking a fresh probe in to the case.

The ACB Court had ordered the ACB to reinvestigate the case and file its report by September 29. The ACB in its memo filed before the Principal Judge of the ACB court said that there was no need for any fresh investigations as the probe on the basis of the first FIR was continuing.

It is a record of sorts that since he became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in August 1995, Chandrababu Naidu faced as many as 17 cases related to allegations of disproportionate assets, transfer of properties, assets of his families, allotment of land to NTR Trust, his alleged role in various scandals but Naidu never had to personally appear before any court. The cases filed by his political opponents including top Congress leader YS Rajasekhar Reddy and others came to a naught. Either the courts dismissed the petitions or the petitioners themselves withdrew the cases because of lack of evidence. However with the ACB finding clinching evidence against the TDP MLA A Revanth Reddy including recordings of telephonic conversation between the MLA and another person believed to be Chandrababu Naidu, legal experts say Naidu was on a sticky ground in the cash for vote case.