Telangana High Court Justice K. Laxman on Monday Minister D. Sridhar Babu dismissed the criminal revision case filed in 2017 by the Basantanagar police in Peddapally seeking a direction to acquit him of the case registered against him.
A case was registered against him and 300 others in 2017 when the Congress was in opposition and led protests against a public hearing on the Kaleswaram project called by the then BRS government. The then opposition legislative minister was accused of creating ruckus along with other Congress leaders and workers by throwing a chair and shouting slogans against then Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The Vasantnagar police issued a first information report on August 23, 2017, accusing him and others of obstructing public officials from discharging their official duties. A case was filed against them under Sections 353, 147, 427 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code.
As Sridhar Babu was an MLA, the case was eventually transferred to the Special Judicial First Class Magistrate for Excise, Hyderabad (trials against MLAs and MPs). Seeking relief from criminal cases, Sridhar Babu, who became a minister after the Congress party came to power in the 2023 assembly elections, knocked on the doors of the High Court.
But the judge dismissed the criminal review case. However, the judge was relieved when the minister was exempted from appearing before the Hyderabad magistrate after hearing a separate criminal petition filed by him. The judge ordered the complainant Kataram’s executive engineer K. Also issued a notice to Mallikarjun Prasad in this regard.
The minister was directed to appear before the magistrate as required. The case was adjourned to January 6, 2024.
In another case, High Court judge B Vijayasena Reddy directed the Masab Tank Police in Hyderabad to return the mobile phone of opposition BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy which they seized on December 5. Public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao informed the bench. The mobile phone had already been sent to a forensic science laboratory for analysis after the MLA allegedly misbehaved during a visit to the police station in December. 5.
published – December 16, 2024 at 11:17 pm IST