Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Thursday, November 21, came down heavily on thepolice for arresting former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Patnam Narender Reddy in connection with Lagcherla violence in Vikarabad.
The police were questioned for relying on allegations that weren’t part of the reasons and grounds mentioned in the remand report. The investigating officer in the Lagcherla violence case was pulled up for irregularities in the arrest procedure and questioned how the petitioner’s release would affect the investigation process.
Public Prosecutor, Palle Nageshwar Rao, representing the Police Department produced before court the witness statements sought by the court. He said the confession statements of the 21st and 22nd accused along with the call data records were the basis for implicating the MLA, the petitioner in the case, in the crime.
Rao also handed over a pen drive to the court and stated that the video content would reveal Reddy’s involvement prior to and after the Lagacherla incident.
The prosecutor alleged that the videos would reveal Reddy provoking his associates to attack chief minister A Revanth Reddy and district officials if they visited the village. He further stated that another FIR was registered before the incident on October 25.
On enquiring about the said FIR with the public prosecutor, the Judge found that Reddy was not an accused in that FIR. The Judge wondered if a pen drive submitted in the court hall without following the procedure of filing a supporting affidavit could be relied on.
Rao then stood corrected and sought court permission to file the relevant affidavit for relying on the pen drive. The judge refused to play the content in the court hall and said he would consider the content in the pen drive after the procedure was followed.
Upon hearing the allegations raised by the public prosecutor that Rs 10 crore was released by BRS working president KT Rama Rao to fight legal cases in the incident.
Justice K. Lakshman asked the prosecutor to produce supporting material for such allegations. However, no such material was placed before the Court.
The Public Prosecutor informed the court that multiple applications were filed by Reddy and his wife, to which Justice Lakshman asked what was the illegality in pursuing legal remedies including filing a bail application, seeking quash of remand, multiple FIRs and seeking suo moto contempt for violating Supreme Court guidelines on arrest.
In support of his contention that procedure was followed, Rao referred to the arrest memo pointed out two signatures at the same place and stated that they belonged to Reddy and his associate Saleem, who was informed about the arrest.
The Judge remarked that this was sufficient enough to show that the arrest was illegal.
Patnam Narender Reddy’s arrest in the Lagcherla violence case
Patnam Narender Reddy was arrested following an alleged attack and violence against government officers during a public hearing in Lagcherla Village, Dudyal Mandal, Vikarabad, on November 11.
He requested an order to suspend the remand pending the resolution of his criminal petition. His legal team argued that the remand order was issued without proper consideration of the facts and did not serve the interests of justice.
Vikarabad violence
The case stems from a public hearing held in Lagcherla Village regarding land acquisition for the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TIIC). During this hearing, it is alleged that a group of individuals affected by the land acquisition process attacked government officers.
While several individuals involved in the attack have been arrested, the remand report claims that a confession made by one of the accused led to Reddy being named as the primary accused in this case.
