The Telangana High Court on Monday, October 16 directed Hyderabad Police Commissioner to take action against police officials responsible for detaining three volunteers from the Congress’ war room during a raid in December 2022.
The court directed the Commissioner to initiate action against officials for acting in violation of rules. The court order came on a habeas corpus petition filed by senior Congress leader Mallu Ravi. Ravi’s lawyer had told the court that the three persons were kept in illegal custody for 18 hours and released only after a habeas corpus petition was filed.
He had sought orders asking for the police to pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh to each of the detained for illegal custody. The police had raided the Telangana Congress war room run by the party's poll strategist, Sunil Kanugolu for allegedly making defamatory comments about Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and posting the same on social media platforms.
The police had later issued notice under the 41A CrPC notices in connection with the case booked by the cyber crime wing against them under Sections 505-B (Statements conducing to public mischief) and 469 (Forgery for purpose of harming reputation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for making defamatory videos by morphing photos.
Based on the pleas of Ishank Sharma, Prashant Taineni and Manda Sripratap, the three Congress volunteers, the High Court stayed the notices.