AP High Court Gives Conditional Bail to Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday accorded conditional bail to YSRC Macherla MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy. The court made it clear that no action be taken against Pinnelli till June 6 and adjourned the case to June 6 for next hearing.
Ramakrishna Reddy moved a lunch motion before the AP High Court on Thursday seeking anticipatory bail. When the court started hearing on anticipatory bail petition, advocate Niranjan Reddy, on behalf of the Macherla MLA, said if the incident had happened on May 13, FIR should have been registered on May 15.
Further, the advocate objected to the Election Commission taking action after seeing the video released by opposition leader Nara Lokesh on Twitter. He pointed out that in the FIR, it has been mentioned that unknown persons had been involved in the case.
Niranjan Reddy underlined that the video may have been morphed on Twitter. He sought anticipatory bail for Pinnelli on grounds that sections mentioned impart punishment up to seven years.
The advocate pointed out that according to guidelines of the Supreme Court in the Arnesh Kumar case, if there are sections punishable by up to seven years, 41A notices should be served on the accused.
While the hearing was on, counsel for the Election Commission sought time to file the counter.
Subsequently, Justice Jyotirmayi, the judge of the single bench, granted conditional bail to the Macherla MLA till June 6.
Earlier during the day, tense situation prevailed in Palnadu area following rumours that Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy had decided to surrender in the court. Telugu Desam also gave a Chalo Macherla call to meet victims of the poll violence.
Police foiled the Chalo Macherla call by putting several TD under house arrest, including state general secretary and former minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, TD politburo member Nakka Anand Babu, senior leader Kanaparthi Srinivasa Rao, and TD Macharla ticket aspirant Julakanti Brahmananda Reddy, among others.
Police had also been deployed in large numbers at Narasaraopet on Thursday, as there had been rumours that the Macherla MLA would surrender in the Narasaraopet court.
However, Ramakrishna Reddy chose to move the AP High Court for anticipatory bail.
