HC asks Telangana police to explain ban on Bandi’s yatra

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the police to place before it the records on what made them stop BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s Praja Sangama Yatra on Tuesday.  The case was adjourned to Thursday morning as the first case at 10.30 am.

Dealing with a petition filed by the BJP state unit, the court asked the police to explain the reason for preventing a yatra that had been going on for 20 days without any permission by the police or any authority.

The court also directed the police to show the video recordings of Sanjay’s speeches and statements which, according to the police, were provocative and caused law and order problems.

Justice Kanneganti Lalitha, after coming to know that Sanjay’s yatra was continuing without permission, asked the police why they were now asking permission to continue the yatra. The court pointed to the police escort given to the yatra all these days, even though they did not ask for it.

T. Srikanth Reddy, government pleader, said it was oral approval to continue the yatra, because it was not a public gathering. However, the police provided some personnel to escort the yatra as a precautionary measure.

Government counsel said that some untoward incidents had taken place during the yatra in some villages and with Sanjay’s provocative speeches, the law and order problem had arisen. Srikanth Reddy said more than 15 cases had been filed against the BJP state president.

Though the yatra was allowed without permission on the ground that it would be in some political context, the provocative speeches by the party leaders caused several problems and therefore the police had to handle the situation.

Senior counsel N. Ramachandra Rao submitted that the police were now stopping the yatra on apprehensions and other reasons only known to them. They did not insist on permission for the yatra, which now completed more than 1,000 kilometres. But, with the recent developments in Hyderabad, they were demanding permission, senior counsel submitted.

Upon hearing the contentions, the court said it did not want to go into the aspect of permission, because both counsels agreed that the yatra had continued without permission. The court wanted to look into the law and order issues and the cases lodged against Sanjay for his alleged provocative speeches.