HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Saturday expressed anger over the way the police handled a couple of money-related cases and warned that it would direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the pattern of inquiry adopted by the police in those cases.
Stating that the police were bearing a grudge against a few people and implicating them in false cases for highlighting the abuse of police power, Justice K. Lakshman said the police could not implicate a person in a crime based on a confession statement by the co-accused.
Justice Lakshman was dealing with a case in which the police had registered an FIR against a person, T. Prabhakar Rao of Kukatpally, on the ground that he was providing financial aid to the outlawed Maoists. Before the case was registered on March 4, 2022, Prabhakar had approached the High Court in 2021 complaining about power abuse by the Cyberabad police and a Special Operations Team (SOT) and how the police were harassing him and his family in a money-related issue. An FIR was registered under Sections 420 and 406 of IPC at Bachupally police station against Prabhakar Rao.
Cyberabad police commissioner Stephen Ravindra appeared twice before the court to explain the contention of the police. The court also asked how the money matter case was transferred to the SOT and enquired about the police interest in the case.
Ravindra was also directed by the court to submit a report on the action taken against the police officers who abused power by April 12.
Meanwhile a case was registered against Prabhakar Rao at the Dummugudem police station of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, on charges that he had provided Rs 3.34 lakh to Maoists. The police registered this case based on a confession statement of a person, who was named as co-accused in that case. Prabhakar was made as accused number four and total 30 members were made as accused. As part of the investigation of this case, the police called Prabhakar to the police station.
Challenging it, Prabhakar Rao filed another petition before the High Court stating that the police had borne a grudge against him and implicated him in a false case for lodging a complaint of misuse of police power.
Acknowledging the contentions of the petitioner, Justice Lakshman said the court would direct a CBI inquiry into two cases and the pattern of the probe conducted by the police. Meanwhile, the court directed the Director General of Police to supervise the investigation in the two cases. The Judge observed that the matters required to be examined.
