Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Monday reserved its orders on a police plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to BRS MLCs T Madhusudhan and N Naveen Kumar Reddy, who are accused of making derogatory remarks against assembly speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar by allegedly referring to his caste.
Opposing the plea, senior counsel TV Ramana Rao, appearing for the two MLCs, denied that the legislators had made the alleged remarks on Sept 7 during the confrontation that erupted when police personnel and assembly marshals prevented BRS leaders from entering the assembly premises. Arguing against the maintainability of the petition, the counsel alleged that the move to seek cancellation of bail was politically motivated and intended to target the principal opposition party. He urged the court to dismiss the petition. After hearing both sides, the high court reserved its orders.
The defence also drew the court’s attention to an earlier high court order directing the director general of police to identify police personnel and assembly marshals who allegedly misbehaved with BRS women legislators and take appropriate action against them.
During the hearing, public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao submitted written instructions in response to an earlier query by the court on whether the investigating officer had issued notices to the accused under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, as the offences involved were punishable with imprisonment of less than five years. The prosecution contended that the allegations concerned remarks made against a constitutional authority and warranted appropriate action. It urged the court to suspend the bail order granted by the magistrate.