Telangana High Court directs AP govt to file details of politicos who took part in cockfights

HYDERABAD:Expressing displeasure over the participation of public representatives in cock-fights held illegally during Sankranthi festival in spite of the court orders, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday said that it would not spare them and directed the AP government to place all details regarding their positions and addresses before the court by next date of hearing.In another related case, the bench issued notices to the TDP MLAs A Satya Prasad, A Satish Prabhakar and former MLAs Devineni Mallikarjuna Rao and M Venkata Subbaiah for allegedly organising cock-fights in Guntur district during the festival.

The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a PIL filed by K Ramachandra Raju from West Godavari complaining that the officers had failed to curb the unauthorised gaming, illegal sale of liquor, prostitution held under the garb of cock-fights particularly at Vempa and Srirampuram of Bhimavaram mandal in West Godavari district during Sankranthi. He sought directions to the government authorities to implement provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and the AP Gaming Act, 1974, and to prevent the anti-social elements from organising cock-fights with betting during festival season.

The bench issued notices to politicians in a petition filed by T Bhanu Prakash, advocate from Tadipakavaripalem in Guntur district, seeking registration of cases against the public representatives including ruling party MLAs and MLCs for organising cock-fights in Guntur.On January 4 this year, the bench, while holding the State Chief Secretary and DGP responsible for any violation of the court order, had made it clear that its order passed in 2016 to prevent cock-fights has to be implemented by the State government without fail.

When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, AP advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas told the court that no public representatives organised cock-fights.Reacting to this submission, the bench said that they have seen on TV channels showing the public representatives participating in the cock-fights and talking about the event.The bench adjourned the case by four weeks.