Contempt proceedings against senior TS bureaucrat set aside

 HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court set aside contempt proceedings against senior IAS officer M. Raghunandan Rao, presently secretary of the agriculture and co-operation department.

In 2017, a single judge bench of the High Court had held Rao guilty of wilful disobedience of court orders in relation to mutation of land records and had imposed a fine on him after initiating contempt proceedings.

The contempt case  was that despite court orders, when he was collector of Ranga Reddy district, he did not mutate land admeasuring 24 acres and 35 gunta in Survey no. 77 of Hafeezpet village in Serilingampally mandal in the name of  a real estate company.

Challenging the single-judge ruling, Rao had filed a contempt appeal which the division bench disposed of on Friday.