Cases against KTR: Telangana High Court issues notices to Police Dept

Notices issued in response to BRS leader's plea seeking to quash the cases registered against him in relation to election-related matters and alleged defamatory remarks

Hyderabad: Justice K Lakshman of the Telangana High Court issued notices to the Police Department and complainants in connection with different quash petitions filed by Sircilla MLA and BRS working president KT Rama Rao.

The notices were issued in response to Rama Rao’s plea seeking to quash the cases registered against him in relation to election-related matters and alleged defamatory remarks.

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The court sought explanations from the concerned parties, and the matters have been scheduled for March 18 for further hearing. In the three separate petitions filed by Rama Rao, the first case pertains to MLC elections, wherein the Medipally police registered an FIR in May 2024 based on a complaint lodged by journalist-turned-politician Chintapandu Naveen, also known as Teenmaar Mallanna.

The complaint alleged that fabricated videos were circulated to influence the election outcome. Former Minister G Jagadish Reddy was also named as an accused in the case. Both Rama Rao and Jagadish Reddy have filed quash petitions.

In this case, Justice Lakshman recused himself from hearing the case directing the High Court registry to post the matter before any other judge of the High Court.

The second case that was sought to be quashed stemmed from a complaint filed at Saifabad police station by Congress leader Anil Kumar Yadav, accusing Rama Rao of using offensive language on social media.

The complaint alleged that on August 20, 2024, Rama Rao posted a tweet referring to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy as ‘Cheap Minister’ and ‘Delhi Ghulam,’ which was claimed to be defamatory and damaging to the CM’s reputation.

The third criminal case under challenge was registered at Utnoor Police Station based on a complaint by Congress leader Atram Suguna, who alleged that Rama Rao had accused the Congress party of planning to misappropriate Rs 25,000 crore through the Musi project.

Justice Lakshman, while hearing these petitions, sought responses from the police and the complainants on the second and third case, while adjourning the matters to March 18.