Telangana wants Revanth Reddy’s bail cancelled

Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Telangana on Wednesday moved the Hyderabad High Court, seeking to cancel the bail granted to TD MLA Revanth Reddy, the prime accused in the cash-for-vote scam.

The High Court, which had granted bail to the accused on condition that he would confine himself to his constituency of Kodangal in Mahbubnagar district, had recently relaxed the condition and allowed him to visit Hyderabad.

While relaxing the bail conditions, the court had made it clear that Mr Reddy would not interfere with the investigation and not make any remarks in connection with the case pending against him. On Wednesday, the ACB informed the court that the accused had attended a TD workers’ meeting on September 9 in a function hall in LB Nagar of the city.

The Bureau said that in the meeting, the accused had made a statement, saying: “I was sent to jail in a conspiracy and by resorting to evil deigns and I am confined to Kodangal constituency; today I came to Hyderabad and my friends are saying that now the game has begun, but it is not a game, hunting has begun.”

The ACB claimed that it was an objectionable statement and in utter violation of the condition imposed by the court. It contended that the statement had exposed the conduct of the accused, that he and his supporters were sending a message to the society that he was innocent and a false case had been registered against him.

Maintaining that this kind of attitude of the accused would certainly deter the witnesses in the case and also lead to intimidation of the witnesses, the ACB urged the court to cancel Mr Reddy’s bail.

Chiru moves HC to quash case
Actor-politician K. Chiranjeevi on Wednesday moved the Hyderabad High Court, seeking to quash criminal proceedings pending against him in the Nandyal police station of Kurnool.

He informed the court that the Nandyal police had booked a case against him in 2008 while he was participating in a road-show as president of the erstwhile Praja Rajyam, allegedly because he was obstructing the public and traffic. He said that the investigation officer had filed a chargesheet based on the statements of constables on bandobast duty on that day. He pointed out that in similar cases, the High Court had found fault with registration of the crime based on police proceedings without any independent complainant reporting the crime.

2 states to curb artificial ripening
The TS government on Wednesday submitted before the Hyderabad High Court that it would implement a two-pronged strategy to curb artificial ripening of fruits.  

The AP government, meanwhile. stated that it had decided to promote low-cost ethylene ripening technology, a safe alternative accepted worldwide.

Both placed their action plans before the HC following its direction in a taken-up case to curb artificial ripening of fruits using calcium carbide.

AP principal secretary of health Poonam Malakondaiah said that the government had proposed to initiate criminal proceedings against vendors using carbide and cancel their licence. She said that the government would prepare a list of operators in the fruits business and bring them under the purview of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Dr K. Amarender Reddy, director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine, submitting the action plan on behalf of the TS government, told the court that it would conduct inspections every month and collect at least two fruit samples from retail outlets.

He said the government had decided to empower local bodies to cancel trade licences and display posters in major fruit markets indicating that sale of artificially ripened fruits was an offence that would attract six months jail and fine up to '1 lakh.

Centre questioned over babu’s plea
The Hyderabad Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal on Wednesday asked the Centre why it had allowed IAS officer Satish Chandra to be shifted to AP from Telangana when the officer with whom he swapped places was not of the same pay grade.

A two-member Bench comprising Mr B. Venkateswara Rao (judicial) and Ms Ranjana Chowdary (administration) was hearing the plea of Mr Somesh Kumar, challenging his allotment to AP cadre.

While recalling that the Center’s affidavit filed before it stating that there was no officer available in the same pay grade for swapping Mr Kumar, the Bench asked assistant solicitor general B. Narayana Reddy why the Centre had discriminated in the case of the petitioner.

The Bench stated: “On one hand you say you will allow swapping only among the same batch or among those who have the same pay grade and on the other, you allow officers like Satish Chandra to go to a state of his choice even though his pay grade does not match with his swapper.”

The Bench also sought reasons for not showing former chief secretary P.K. Mohanty in the list of serving officers even though he was very much in service on June 1, 2014.

The Bench recalled that the petitioner had objected to placing Mr Mohanty in the advisory panel formed to divide the officers, when his daughter and son-in-law were both serving as IAS officers.

Mr Kumar had challenged the guidelines prepared by the Pratyush Sinha Committee, contending that all the parameters prepared by the committee were either faulty or were flouted by the authorities at will while dividing the cadre between AP and Telangana.

Mr Narayana Reddy meanwhile submitted that the whole exercise was done in accordance with the guidelines of the Pratyush Sinha Committee and also in accordance with the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act. The Bench will hear the case again on Friday.