Organizing event at Martyrs Memorial during MCC: Telangana HC stays all proceedings against KTR

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court has stayed all proceedings in a pending criminal case against BRS working president K Tarakarama Rao (KTR).

A single-judge bench of Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy stayed further proceedings including the appearance of K. Tarakarama Rao. The case is being heard in the Court of Special Judicial Magistrate (First Class) for excise cases at Manoranjan Complex, Nampally, Hyderabad.

The case was registered against KTR under section 188, 717-H of IPC. Petitioner’s counsel said that the police had no power to register a case against KTR under these sections.

Hence, he sought a stay including his appearance before the Court. The Court issued notice to the state and directed it to file its reply.

The allegation against KTR is that he organized an event at the Martyr’s Memorial during the 2023 assembly elections when the Model Code of Conduct was in vogue. Police had registered a criminal case against KTR and other political leaders for organizing this event. During this event, a drone camera was also used by the petitioner, without obtaining prior permission from the police.

Since KTR is the MLA of BRSKTR, the case was transferred from the Court of First Addl. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Hyderabad to the Court of Judicial First Class Magistrate for Excise cases at Manoranjan complex, constituted as Spl. Court for trial of cases relating to MLAs and Ex-MLAs.

The judge was adjudicating the CRLP filed by Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, seeking to quash proceedings.