Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday questioned the governments of TS and AP as to what is being done to curb the menace of people being killed due to drunken driving and told the two states to conduct drunken driving checks on the highways.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen Rao was dealing with a suo motu case based on news reports connected to the ghastly road accident which occurred on March 15, 2016, in Vijayawada in which four students of the Osmania Medical College were killed and several more students grievously injured due to alleged rash, negligent and drunken driving by the driver.
Justice Bhosale reacting seriously in allowing drivers to drive passenger vehicles on highways in a drunken state and directed the two states to file reports on action being taken to check the menace.
The bench enquired with TS AAG J. Ramachandra Rao which travel company did the bus belong to. The AAG replied that the bus originally belonged to Dhanunjaya Travels and efforts are on to ascertain its present owner.
The bench told him to ask the authorities to take steps to close the travels company immediately and also initiate criminal action against it. The AAG told the bench that the government was taking steps as per the recommendations of the committee constituted based on the guidelines of the Supreme Court and taking steps to close down all the liquor shops adjacent to highways. The bench adjourned the case for two weeks.
Srinivasan gets relief from High Court
The Hyderabad High Court on Friday quashed a case against India Cements Ltd MD N. Srinivasan, registered by the CBI in connection with illegal investments case of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Mr Srinivasan alleging that he had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused in the case to avail undue benefits like land and water allotments for his cement plants from the then AP government.
The CBI alleged that in lieu of this, Mr Srinivasan invested '140 crore in Bharati Cements, Carmel Asia and Jagathi Publications owned by Mr Reddy.
Aggrieved by the charges, Mr Srinivasan moved the quash petition.
Allowing the petition, Justice B. Siva Shankar Rao found that the material placed by the CBI failed to prove that Mr Srinivasan entered into a criminal conspiracy in his individual capacity.
