HYDERABAD: The Special Court for MPs and MLAs at Nampally on Friday directed the Station House Officer of Mahabubnagar II Town police station to register a case against Excise Minister V Srinivas Goud in connection with the alleged tampering of his 2018 election affidavit. The special court also pulled up the police for not registering the case despite its earlier orders.
On Friday, the court gave the police till 4 PM to register the case or face contempt of court charges. Mahabubnagar II Town SHO disconnected the call when TNIE called him for details regarding the FIR, while the Mahabubnagar SP failed to respond to repeated calls. However, Chaluvagali Raghavendra Raju, the petitioner, told TNIE that the FIR has been filed and that he was confident of justice being done.
Raju had earlier filed a private complaint, contending that Srinivas Goud had filed three affidavits, dated November 14, 2018, November 19, 2018, and another undisclosed date.He alleged that the Minister, in collaboration with the returning officer, unlawfully replaced the contents of the affidavit dated November 14, 2018, with that of the affidavit dated November 19, 2018, in violation of the Representation of Peoples Act.
Raju claimed that the minister replaced the ‘defective’ affidavit submitted in Form No. 26, and concealed crucial details pertaining to the immovable property acquired by the Minister’s spouse through a sale deed and a mortgage loan of Rs 12 lakh obtained from the Andhra Pradesh Gramina Vikas Bank, Padmavati Colony branch, Mahbubnagar.
Responding to this, the court directed the petitioner to provide documents substantiating the allegations. Complying with the court’s order, Raju obtained relevant documents through the Right to Information (RTI) Act and submitted them as evidence.
In July, the special court had directed Mahabubnagar II Town police to register a case against Srinivas Goud as per 156 (C) of CrPC and to file cases on the then chief election officer Rajeev Kumar, former Mahabubnagar district collectors Ronald Rose and S Venkata Rao, RDO Srinivas, deputy collector Padmasri, Venkatesh Goud, notary advocate Rajendra Prasad and Danam Sudhakar. As the police failed to lodge the case, Raju filed another petition before the court.