Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday granted interim stay on the directions of the additional junior civil judge, Mahabubnagar that criminal cases be filed against Excise Minister V Srinivas Goud, Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Raveendra, Balanagar DCP Sandeep Rao and 17 other police personnel for allegedly kidnapping and imprisoning Bhandekar Vishwanth, C Raghavendra Raju and others on suspicion of a conspiracy to assassinate the Minister.
The court granted the interim relief in a quash plea filed by the Cyberabad Police Commissioner and Shagani Ramesh, Inspector, Pet Basheerabad police station, seeking a stay on the lower court’s summons. The summons were issued based on a private complaint made by Bhandekar Pushpalatha, wife of Bhandekar Vishwanath.
Initially, Raveendra and Shagani Ramesh opposed the summons issued by the lower court and were granted injunction, following which 17 other police officers filed identical applications, which were heard by the CJ bench. After considering the petitions, the CJ issued a interim stay and adjourned the case to December 2, 2022.