The Telangana High Court has dismissed the legal proceedings against Pargi MLA T Ram Mohan Reddy and Ardha Sudhakar Reddy, the Vikarabad town Congress president. The case, registered as C.C.No. 281/2022, was pending before the Special Judicial Magistrate of First Class for Excise Cases in Nampally.
Other individuals involved in the case include Gaddam Prasad Kumar, the current Speaker of the Assembly, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, the Chevella MP, and Pilot Rohit Reddy, the MLA from Tandur. Prasad Kumar had filed a separate petition and was granted relief. However, the petitions from the other accused are still under consideration.
Justice Kunuru Lakshman, who reviewed Ram Mohan Reddy’s petition, found that the investigating officer did not follow the proper legal procedure as required under Section 155 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The chargesheet did not mention the petitioners or the other accused, and the investigation was not conducted properly regarding their involvement.
The case stemmed from an incident on March 12, 2019, when the petitioners and their associates held a hunger strike in front of the Vikarabad Revenue Divisional Office. This protest violated the Model Code of Conduct for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
M Ram Babu, who was in charge of the flying squad in Vikarabad during the elections, filed a complaint with the Vikarabad Circle Inspector (CI). Based on this complaint, a case (Crime No. 69/2019) was registered against the petitioners under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The police later submitted a chargesheet in the Judicial First-Class Magistrate (JFCM) court in Vikarabad. Eventually, the case was transferred to the Special Judicial First-Class Magistrate (SJFCM) in Nampally.
