New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay an Andhra Pradesh High Court order which had quashed the charge of forgery, allegedly committed by senior IPS officer Umesh Kumar in forging documents to accuse state police chief and his wife of owning assets exceeding their legal income.
A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar refused to accede to the Andhra Pradesh government`s plea and told its senior counsel R Venkatramani and standing counsel Mahesh Babu that it would take it up only after the summer vacation.
The senior counsel claimed an earlier bench of justices Deepak Verma and S J Mukhopadhya had, in fact, on May 21 dictated an order staying the high court`s direction. However, when the order was put on the website it did not reflect the direction for stay, the counsel said.
He submitted that the apex court had stayed the high court`s order so that the trial may proceed unhindered.
The bench, however, was not impressed with the argument and told the counsel that the plea for stay can be examined only after the vacation.
The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) had earlier lodged criminal cases against Kumar for allegedly using forged documents to level allegations that state`s Director General of Police Dinesh Reddy and his wife owned assets disproportionate to their income.
A division bench of the high court had earlier quashed charges against Umesh Kumar under section 468 of the IPC. Section 468 IPC (forgery for cheating) entails a maximum punishment upto 7 years.
The high court had also stayed the order for probe passed by a single judge into the allegations made by DGP V Dinesh Reddy and senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Umesh Kumar against each other.
PTI
