High Court directs farmers to allow only 600 persons to take part in Padayatra

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh High Court issued directions to the farmers who embarked on Padayatra from Amaravati to Arasavilli to express protest on AP’s move to develop three capitals, to strictly confine to only 600 persons permitted to take part in the march earlier.

The single judge bench headed by Justice R. Raghunandan Rao heard the petition and issued directions here on Friday.

Accordingly, any persons seeking to express solidarity could do so from the sidelines and not by joining the procession.

The court directed the police not to allow any person except those permitted to take part in padyatra to ensure that no anti-social elements infiltrate and create law and order problem. It also directed the police to ensure while granting permission to any group of rival opinion not to be in proximity of the procession of Padayatra. The court also directed the police to ensure not more than four vehicles to be allowed in the padayatra.

The AP High Court granted bail to nine Jana Sena leaders who were booked for attacking the staff of the ministers and police personnel at the Visakhapatnam Airport on October 15. The Airport police registered cases against 70 persons in the case and of them 61 were released in the early hours of Sunday. The remaining were sent to judicial remand.

A bail petition was moved by a leader recently but the High Court rejected it citing it cannot accept a petition from a third party.

The remanded persons were Kona Tata Rao, Sundarapu Vijay Kumar, Panchakarla Sandeep, Kolluri Rupa, PLN Murthy Yadav, PVSN Raju, Chintapalli Srinu, Bogi Srinivas Patnaik and Rayapureddy Krishna.

General secretary of Jana Sena Bolisetti Satyhanarayana said they did not receive the hard copy of the order from the High Court. He is expecting to receive it on Saturday after which it would be produced before the seventh metropolitan magistrate in Visakhapatnam and a copy would be sent to the central prison.

“Probably they will be released tomorrow evening,’’ Satyanarayana said.

In another order, the High Court asked the Airport police officials not to arrest Jana Sena leaders Thammireddy Siva Sankara Rao, Bolisetti Satyanarayana and Boddepalli Raghu during the investigation and posted the case to October 31.