The Telangana High Court has cancelled the criminal case against chief minister A Revanth Reddy registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case, registered at Gachibowli police station in 2016, was on the allegations that Revanth Reddy, his brother Kondal Reddy and his associate E Lakshmaiah tried to forcefully enter Razole Constituency SC Mutually Aided Cooperative Housing Society land and verbally abused the president of the society, N Peddi Raju, using casteist abuses.
The contention revolved around 31 acres of Survey No. 127 in Gopanpally village. Peddi Raju complained that Revanth Reddy's brother and partner encroached upon the land of the society with Reddy's support, razed buildings on the property, and abused him verbally calling on his caste.
On these grounds, criminal charges were lodged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST Act.
CM Reddy approached the High Court in 2020 to quash the FIR, claiming the allegations were false, politically motivated, and that he was not even present on the spot.
Also read: No voters for Cong if Revanth stays CM for 5 yrs: KTR
It was put before the court during the hearing that out of the eight witnesses questioned by the police, none of them could establish the presence of Revanth Reddy at the spot on January 12, 2016, when the crime is alleged to have been committed.
Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya, in her judgement, laid stress on the fact that the prosecution did not present any material evidence to connect Revanth Reddy with the alleged offence.
The judge commented that accusations were not enough to lead to a conviction and that there was no evidence of Reddy's presence or role in the incident.
The court also pointed out that similar complaints made by the same complainant in the past had been dismissed by the courts for failure of evidence. Since there is no direct or supporting evidence against Revanth Reddy, the High Court granted his petition and struck down all proceedings, terming the charges as non-meritorious.
Follow us
