High Court orders immediate return of Dileep Konatham’s passport

The Telangana High Court has directed police to return Dileep Konatham’s passport, terming its seizure illegal and an abuse of power. The passport was taken after his arrest in 2025, despite a magistrate granting him bail.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has directed the police department to return the impounded passport of former Digital Media director Dileep Konatham. The passport was seized after Dileep was arrested by the Telangana police following his return from the United States on July 10, 2025.

Dileep was then produced before a magistrate in Nirmal, who denied police custody and granted him bail. However, the police had seized the passport and did not return it despite his repeated requests.

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Subsequently, an aggrieved Dileep Konatham wrote to the DGP, drawing attention to the alleged illegal seizure of his passport and the delay in returning it, and later approached the High Court.

Hearing the case, Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar issued notices to the State police last month, asking them to explain the grounds for seizing the passport. The police explained that the passport was seized in connection with a different case, but the court did not accept their argument.

Subsequently, the court ruled that the police had no authority to arbitrarily seize a citizen’s passport, termed it an instance of abuse of power and directed the police to return the passport immediately.