Telangana High Court asks 3 accused not to leave city

Hyderabad: In an interim order in the 4 TRS MLAs' poaching case, the Telangana High Court on Friday evening directed the three accused not to leave Hyderabad for the next 24 hours.

The HC single bench, headed by Dr Justice ChillakurSumalatha, heard the criminal revision petition filed by Cyberabad Police seeking a direction to set aside the order passed by the Additional Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases, Hyderabad, rejecting the remand of Nanda Kumar, owner of Deccan Pride Hotel, Swami Ramachandra Bharati alias S Satish Sharma from Faridabad, and SimhaYajulu from Tirupati, in the case.

Advocate-General Banda Shivananda Prasad informed the court that the additional special judge had wrongly rejected the remand of the accused as the police had considerable material evidence to prove that they were involved in the poaching of MLAs and sought quashing of the ACB judge's order.

Prasad said the order of ACB Judge was contrary to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar judgment. It's a criminal conspiracy against the State government;there is an urgency in the case as there is all probability of the accused fleeing the country; in this event, the investigation will be hampered, he stated.

Justice Sumalatha directed the three accused "not to leave Hyderabad City for the next 24 hours. They will have to furnish their residential addresses to the Cyberabad Commissioner of Police.

She directed that the accused should not indulge in any activity like contacting the defacto complainant Rohit Reddy, Tandur MLA, or try to influence witnesses directly or indirectly.

Justice Sumalatha issued notices to the accused and other respondents. Hearing in the case will continue on November 29, when, she said, the case will be disposed of as the first case.

Vedula Srinivas, senior counsel, appeared for the accused, seeking time till Saturday to present his arguments. For further hearing, the matter adjourned to 29-10-2022 as the first case.

The Cyberabad police on Thursday filed a criminal case against three persons who were detained from a farmhouse in Hyderabad on Wednesday night with a "huge amount of cash" for allegedly trying to poach four TRS MLAs into BJP.

The FIR was lodged based on a complaint lodged by Rohit Reddy, one of the four MLAs allegedly lured with huge cash, at Moinabad police station under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 171-B r/w 171-E 506 r/w 34 (offering bribe for electoral gains) of IPC and Section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act,1988.

MLA Raja Singh case hearing adjourned to Monday

The high court division bench, comprising Justice A Abhishek Reddy and Justice Juvvadi Sridevi, heard the plea filed by Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh's wife T Usha Bai seeking to quash the order of his preventive detention, as approved by the Government, as illegal.

Usha Bai submitted that the PD Act which is imposed on Singh violates Articles 14 and 21 of Constitution besides the guidelines as enunciated in the Act.

Special GP Mujeeb Kumar Sadasivuni informed the court that recently the PD Act Advisory Board had given its report supporting the decision of the Hyderabad police invoking PD Act against Singh. He submitted the board's report. He said subsequently the GO was issued invoking PD Act against Singh and the detention extended for 12 months. Still the GO has not been challenged by the petitioner.

On behalf of Usha Bai, senior counsel N Ramchander Rao informed the court that he may be permitted to argue the case. "Detenue Singh is a public representative; so many lacunae are there in the detention order which has been invoked against Singh by the government".

Special GP told the court that Advocate-General Banda Shivananda Prasad will argue the case and seek adjournment for a few days.

The bench, complying to the request of Special GP, adjourned the hearing to November 31.

Relief to IAS Murlidhar Reddy; HC sets aside all CBI proceedings

Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of the Telangana High Court on Friday directed the CBI to set aside all the proceedings against AP IAS officer Dereddy Muralidhar Reddy in a CBI court in connection with the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub scam in the Jaganmohan Reddy disproportionate assets case.

The single bench of CJ Bhuyan was dealing with a quash petition filed by Reddy seeking to call for records pertaining to the case in CC No 28 of 2013 in RC No19A/2011 -CBI- Hyderabad on the file of the Principal Special Judge for CBI cases, Nampally, and quash them by holding it to be an abuse of process of law.

Syam Prasad Reddy of Indu Projects was allotted 9,000 acres in Anantapur for developing the hub. Muralidhar Reddy was charged with unduly granting NOC to SP Reddy for raising loans. Reddy then was the Managing Director of AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).

The petitions were filed by P Shankar Rao, former MLA, and former MP the late Yerran Naidu in 2011 alleging corruption against former CM YSR, his son, Jagan and others, seeking investigation by CBI into corruption charges.

On August 10, 2011, the erstwhile High Court of AP directed the CBI to investigate the allegations. On September 17, 2013, the CBI filed its report as final charge-sheet naming 14 persons as accused, including YS Jagan and V Vijaya Sai Reddy as accused no. 1 and 2, and Muralidhar Reddy as accused no. 12. In the charge- sheet the CBI alleged that both YSR and his son had adopted several ingenious ways to amass illegal wealth.

After hearing contentions of petitioner advocate Sivaraju Srinivas and Special Public Prosecutor, CBI K. Surender, CJ Bhuyan pronounced the order on the charge-sheet in CC no. 28 of 2013 and as well as the cognisance order dated October 17,2013 of the CBI court,

setting aside all proceedings against Muralidhar Reddy and quashed the case. Consequently, a criminal petition was allowed. Miscellaneous petitions pending in the criminal petition shall stand closed, CJ Bhuyan observed in the order.