POCSO case: Telangana High Court to hear interim bail plea of Bandi Sai Bageerath on Friday

The Telangana High Court postponed hearing of Bandi Sai Bageerath’s anticipatory bail plea in a POCSO case to Friday, while questioning urgency for interim relief amid objections from the victim’s counsel and the prosecution.

Hyderabad: Justice T Madhavi Devi of the Telangana High Court has postponed the hearing of the bail petition of Bandi Sai Bageerath to Friday, after hearing arguments on the interim anticipatory bail filed in the high-profile case on Thursday. The petitioner Bandi Sai Bageerath, is the son of union Minister of State for Home, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and is an accused person in the POCSO case registered against him in Pet Basheerabad police station on May 8.

The court has asked senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy who argued on behalf of Bandi Sai Bageerath, as to how this accused person was different from any other person and why the interim application should be heard immmediately by the court, as the general pratice of the court was that any bail petition would be posted after one week for the police to get instructions.

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In response, Niranjan Reddy argued that there were Supreme Court judgements, which supported anticipatory bails and that the judges have inherent powers to grant interim protection. The Public Prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao informed the court that the victim were given a notice on Thursday morning.

The counsel for the victim also appeared before the court and sought a week’s time to respond to the anticipatory bail. He also opposed hearing the interim bail application as it was same as that of anticipatory bail application. He also drew the attention of the court that the accused person was absconding and no special treatment was required.

He contended that the father of the accused person was a union minister and that the victim’s family faced harassment at the police station waiting for hours to get the complaint registered. The police had also ensured that the information was was passed and accused family had launched a counter blast case in Karimnagar.

Howeve, the court considered hearing the interim anticipatory bail application tomorrow and the main anticipatory bail next week.