The High Court on Monday admitted a Writ Petition filed by former MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy seeking a CBI probe into the Amaravati Inner Ring Road scam, in which N. Chandrababu Naidu is one of the key accused, and posted the matter to March 16.

Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy requested the court to direct the CBI to take over the case and investigate the charges framed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in a time-bound manner, alleging that the CID had colluded with Mr. Naidu and other respondents.

He argued that the investigation was biased as Mr. Naidu was exerting pressure on and threatening police officers to have the case dismissed as a mistake of fact. Such action amounted to a violation of the right to non arbitrary State action and the right to a fair investigation. Given the seriousness of the case, the CBI should be entrusted with the probe, he appealed.

Speaking to the media later, Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy alleged that Mr. Naidu, Mr. Nara Lokesh, Mr. P. Narayana, Mr. Lingamaneni Ramesh and others had derived huge illegal benefits from the suspected land transactions by acting in collusion. He further claimed that, in his capacity as Chief Minister, Mr. Naidu was influencing IPS officers investigating the nearly ₹2,500 crore scam.

He pointed out that the same CID, which had earlier filed a nearly 5,000-page chargesheet, was now conducting the investigation in a manner that could result in the exoneration of the accused.

Appearing for Mr. Naidu, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that the Writ Petition was not maintainable and should therefore be dismissed.