Hyderabad: The bench of Telangana High Court headed by chief justice Ujjal Bhuyan quashed Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind’s plea, seeking directions to drop a complaint lodged against him under the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act at the Nizamabad Police Station.
The judge ordered him to face trial in a case registered against him in Madannapet police station, by vacating its earlier order dated January 5, 2022, while directing the police to avoid taking any action against the MP.
D Arvind visited the Chanchalguda Central Jail in Hyderabad on October 31, 2021, to meet C Naveen Kumar alias Teenmar Mallanna. Later, speaking to media, he claimed the issue to be useless (lottapeesulu) and the complaint being filed as bogus SC/ST cases.
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On January 2 this year, a social worker filed a complaint at Madannapet Police Station, alleging that Arvind had denigrated the SCs and STs by using the pejorative term ‘lottapeesulu’ (useless).
Following the complaint, a case under Section 3(1)(7) of SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities), Act was registered, which is a non-bailable offence.
During an earlier hearing, the CJ advised the MP to be more careful during public meetings and restrain from uttering such words.
However, Arvind spoke about the bogus SC, ST cases registered against many persons, at the press conference and filed a criminal petition in the court seeking the quashing of the FIR.
Upon the request of the counsel of MP, the CJ kept the day’s order in abeyance for 30 days to enable the petitioner to avail alternate remedy.
To give the petitioner time to seek an alternative remedy, CJ Ujjal Bhuyan suspended the ruling for 15 days at the request of MP Arvind’s attorney.
