HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has issued instructions to the police to lift the sedition case registered against the former University of Hyderabad Professor G Haragopal and five others.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed Director General of Police (DGP) Anjani Kumar to withdraw the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) slapped against Prof Haragopal, Padmaja Shaw, V Raghunath, Gaddam Laxman, Gunti Ravinder and Suresh Kumar.
He instructed the DGP on Saturday to immediately initiate the process of withdrawing the charges against all of them. Following the public criticism of the UAPA cases against them, the State government decided to drop the treason cases that were filed against civil rights leader Haragopal and others.
The case was registered in August 2022 by the Tadvai Police in Mulugu district under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 124-A (sedition), and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3(2) of the UAPA. The case had evoked widespread criticism from civil rights groups and activists, who accused the police of misusing the UAPA to silence dissent.
Following the CM’s direction, the DGP asked Mulugu Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaush Alam to consider withdrawing the FIR registered against Haragopal and others under UAPA. For the first time in the State, the Tadvai police had registered cases under UAPA against 152 persons, including Haragopal.
The FIR came to light on Thursday when the bail petition of People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) president Chandramouli was being heard in another case. While opposing the bail plea, the police informed the Rangareddy district court that Chandramouli was involved in several other cases.
When the court sought the details, the police submitted the FIR, which had the names of 152 people. Tadvai police alleged that they were trying to overthrow the government at gunpoint by associating themselves with Maoists.
Meanwhile, Mulugu SP Gaush Alam on Saturday stated that a memo was filed in the court seeking deletion of the names of Prof Haragopal, Padmaja Shah, V Raghunath, Gaddam Laxman, Gunti Ravinder, and Suresh Kumar from the case registered against them under the UAPA Act for lack of evidence.