HYDERABAD: Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya of the Telangana High Court, while hearing a criminal petition filed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, raised pointed questions regarding the inordinate delay in filing a vacate stay petition in a 2019 SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) case.
Revanth, the then Malkajgiri MP filed the criminal petition, seeking quashing of the proceedings pending before the Special Sessions Judge for Trial of Cases under the SCs/STs (POA) Act, 1989-cum-VII Additional District and Sessions Judge, Rangareddy district at LB Nagar.
The FIR, registered in 2019 at Chandanagar Police Station, invoked Sections 447, 427, 506 read with 34 IPC, and Sections 2(iv)(X) of the SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
During the hearing, Justice Bhattacharya questioned Nimma Narayana, counsel for the de-facto complainant N Peddi Raju, Director of Razole Constituency SC Mutually Aided Cooperative Housing Society Limited, about the timing of the vacate stay petition, pointing out that the petition was filed nearly five years after the stay order dated September 22, 2020 was granted. That order had dispensed with Revanth’s appearance before the Special Sessions Court, except when specifically directed to appear.
Narayana argued that Revanth had violated the 2020 order by failing to appear before the lower court. In response, senior counsel C Raghu, representing Revanth, asserted that there was no specific direction from the high court requiring the petitioner’s appearance before the trial court, and hence, no violation had occurred.
The case originates from a 2019 complaint by Peddi Raju, alleging that Accused No 1 and Revanth’s brother Kondal Reddy, and A2 E Laxmiah, at the instigation of A3 Revanth, trespassed on the land belonging to the society in Survey No 127 of Gopanapally village and demolished a room using a JCB. Further, it was alleged that the accused used casteist slurs against the complainant.
While the case continues to be a matter of contention between the parties over 31 acres and five guntas of land in Gopanapally village, Raghu contended that Revanth was not present at the scene of the alleged offence and that the police had filed a closure report indicating the same. He also informed the court that even the complainant’s statement confirmed that Revanth was not physically present during the incident. The case is next scheduled to come up before the Special Sessions Court on July 5.
Cash-for-vote: CM skips appearance before court
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy Friday skipped appearance before a Nampally court in the cash-for-vote case. The court, however, examined Mathaiah Jerusalem and Sandra Venkata Veeriah, A4 and A5 in the case respectively. The court noted that the matter is pending before the Supreme Court. Other accused in the case are Bishop Harry Sebastian and Rudra Sivakumar Uday Simha. “It is reported that the matter is pending before the Supreme Court”, the court noted. The court posted the matter to July 25 for further hearing.