Hyderabad: Justice G. Radha Rani of the Telangana High Court enlarged on bail a man accused of promoting communal hatred leading to the desecration of a place of worship. Abdul Rashid, owner of a hotel, and its manager Rahman filed a criminal petition seeking their release from judicial custody. It was the case of the prosecution that under the guise of a personality development course, Munawar Zama, along with other accused, was allegedly promoting enmity and hatred which led to a student who was attending their course to desecrate the place of worship. Senior counsel for the petitioner argued that they had been implicated as scapegoats and there was no specific evidence, just an allegation. It was argued that the person who desecrated the place of worship was in no way associated or connected to the petitioners, except the bizarre coincidence that they both belonged to the same community. He said that the act of implicating the petitioners reeked of systemic Islamophobia. It was further pointed out that in the course of business the petitioner had let out the premises for the personality development course and implicating the petitioner solely based on omnibus allegations was far-fetched and arbitrary. Per contra, the public prosecutor opposed the bail contending that neither the organiser nor the hotel management had taken permission from the local authorities for holding the classes. The petitioners were not adhering to the legal regulations, including the Telangana State Public Safety Act and trade licence requirements. Justice Radha Rani, allowing the criminal petition, rejected the arguments of the prosecution and said, “the petitioners are in the business of running hotels and that they had let out their premises on receiving a booking for English development classes and no specific overt acts were alleged against the petitioners and there is no evidence to establish that the petitioners had promoted enmity against any religion or indulged in any of the offences alleged and as no permission was required to conduct conferences inside a hotel and arranging a separate hall for namaz is not an offence and they were made as accused only basing upon their confession which was inadmissible in law and there is no evidence to show that the petitioners are in any way related to Salman (accused No.1) or that they had any knowledge of his criminal antecedents, it is considered a fit case to enlarge the petitioners on bail.”
SSC exam marks up for review
In a case of starting early, now even answers to Class 10 questions came up for judicial review before the High Court. Hemming the admission of a writ plea with the condition that the court will deal with the matter in the limited jurisdiction as ruled by the apex court, Justice T. Vinod Kumar on Tuesday took on a writ plea on awarding marks for Science Paper 1 and Paper 2 in the Class 10 examination. The writ plea was filed by Master Mohammed Affan Khan, represented by his father. The petitioner sought a revision of his marks following an alleged erroneous evaluation by the State Board of Secondary Education in the SSC Advanced Supplementary Examination held in May 2024. The petitioner alleged that despite his initial grievance submitted to the respondent, the re-evaluation committee increased his score by only three marks, falling far short of the anticipated 10. The petitioner contended that this discrepancy was arbitrary, illegal, and in violation of the principles of natural justice. Furthermore, the petitioner claimed that failure to address this discrepancy would result in an undue academic setback, potentially impacting his progress. Counsel for the petitioner emphasised the importance of correcting this error to prevent the petitioner from losing an academic year. Counsel for the respondents sought time to get instructions. Accordingly, the judge posted the matter one week later.
HC seeks CCTV footage of OU PS
Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court ordered the police commissioner to produce CCTV footage of Osmania University police station amid allegations of inhuman treatment and illegal detention of the complainant by the police. The judge was dealing with a writ plea filed by Joel, challenging the alleged wrongful detention of himself and his two brothers following an attempt to file a complaint regarding an attack on his elder brother, Bharath Simha Raidu, who is in judicial custody and suffers from schizophrenia. It was the case of the petitioner that he along with his elder brother were detained for 18 hours at the police station while trying to report the attack. Counsel for the petitioners K. Ajit Reddy argued that the police violated the fundamental rights of the brother by not following the due process of law. He alleged that the police had created a fabricated remand case diary, falsely documenting the arrest of the schizophrenia patient at Habsiguda when, in fact, he was complying with a notice issued under Section 35(3) of BNSS (CrPC Section 41A). Considering the allegations, the judge directed the police commissioner to produce CCTV footage from October 28 to 31 by the next date of hearing. The matter is now scheduled for hearing on November 18.
