Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Friday issued notices to respondents in the petition taken up to decide the legality of the award passed by Lok Adalat to settle the Parakamani theft case. Justice Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad, while ordering two separate probes with CID and ACB into the alleged illegalities in the Parakamani theft case, observed that a single judge bench does not have jurisdiction to decide the legality of the Lok Adalat award. He referred the matter to a larger bench, directing the registry to place the matter before the chief justice for allocation to a competent bench.The matter has been assigned to a division bench comprising Justice R Raghunandan Rao and Justice Subhendu Samanta. On Friday, the matter was taken up for hearing, and the bench issued notices to all the respondents, including the accused C V Ravi Kumar, de facto complainant and assistant vigilance and security officer (AVSO) Y Satish Kumar, the executive officer of TTD, principal secretary endowments, member secretary AP legal services authority, director general of CID, TTD chief vigilance and security officer (CVSO), SHO of Tirupati one town police station, and Tirupati mandal legal services committee chairman.In April 2023, Ravi Kumar was caught red-handed stealing 9 foreign currency notes in $100 denomination from Parakamani. A case was registered with Tirupati one town police following a complaint lodged by Satish Kumar. During the investigation, it was revealed that Ravi Kumar was stealing money from Parakamani for many years and amassed several properties worth crores. Despite the severity involved in the case, it was settled in Lok Adalat between the accused and the complainant.Challenging the same, one M Srinivasulu moved the high court and sought a CID probe into the entire episode. The high court found fault with the police investigation and the trial court where the charge sheet was filed. However, the single judge bench observed that it has no jurisdiction to set aside the award of the Lok Adalat and referred the matter to a larger bench.
