Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the Cyberabad police commissioner to take action against police officers who had raided the Congress War Room on December 13, 2022. and arrested employees working there.
Justice K. Lakshman directed the commissioner to conduct a detailed inquiry into the issue, questioning the need to pick up employees at midnight and serve them 41-A notices the next afternoon at the police station.
The court said that the detention of employees was “nothing but violations of procedures” and directed the commissioner to take action per law against the errant officials.
The orders came while the court was dealing with a habeas corpus petition filed by ex-MP Mallu Ravi, who complained that cybercrime officials illegally detained their employees — Ishan Sharma of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Sasank Tatineni of Visakhapatnam and Prathap Manda of Vijayawada (Urban) — from his office on the fourth floor of the building on InOrbit Mall Road in Madhapur around 10.45 pm without giving a reason. Mallu Ravi also sought each be awarded compensation of Rs 20 lakh for their illegal detention.
It was alleged that the cybercrime police raided the premises on the guise of a complaint that their activities were amounting to defaming Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, by portraying him as a liquor addict, K.T. Rama Rao as a drug dealer and a pimp, and MLC K. Kavitha in a bad light.
Upon being questioned, cybercrime ASP K. Prasad and circle inspector Ramesh did not file a counter. They submitted that a sub-inspector and other subordinates were responsible for the arrests and seizure of hard disks, as they couldn’t conduct an investigation at the Congress premises.
However, the judge was not satisfied and decreed that the police violated the rules.
