Government allows prosecution of Telangana advocates

The government on Saturday gave permission to the city police to prosecute 24 advocates in connection with the cases related to unauthorised assembly, criminal intimidation and damage to pubic property in the High Court premises in 2010.

The advocates, under the banner of Telangana Advocates Joint Action Committee (TAJAC), had stalled the High Court for several days  with protests, which had turned violent at times. Amid the heightened agitation for separate Telangana that year, they were demanding that advocates from the region get their share in the appointment to law officer posts.

The Charminar police had initially registered cases but they were later transferred to the Central Crime Station. The Supreme Court later took serious note of the incidents and questioned the government about the action taken against the advocates.

Police registered the cases against the accused under various sections of the IPC. But with some specific sections needing the government’s permission, the police wrote to the government, following which the law department on Saturday issued a GO according permission to the police to go ahead with the prosecution.

Police had investigated the cases with the help of available video footage and registered cases against the advocates under sections including 147, 506, 323, 186, 228 and 153-A read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code and section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.

The accused no 1 in the case is a woman advocate from Dilsukhnagar, Bagyamma Marrireddy, who is a practitioner in the High Court.

The other accused are Manjula Vakeel of Karmanghat, Venkat Yadav Chalakani of RK Puram, Akula Bikshapathi (an ex-sarpanch of Chintulla in Yacharam), G Viplan Yadav of Barkatpura, J Sampath Kumar of Vidyanagar, G Chandrasekhar Reddy of Malakpet, P Krishna Reddy of Ramanthapur, R Raghamma of Nallakunta (all High Court advocates), Butchi Reddy of Vikarabad, N Srinivas Yadav of Vittalwadi, G Rajavardhan Reddy of Namalgundu, Sampoorna Devi of Chikkadpally, G Venkatesh of Amberpet, Manik Prabhu of Lal Darwaza and Manik Reddy of Esamia Bazar (all advocates of Metropolitan criminal court).

Other  city civil court advocates in the case are P Ashok of Chilkalguda, Santosh Singh of Himayathnagar, Shashank Goel of Kacheguda, J Chandraiah Yadaiah, etc. The advocates were shown as ‘absconding’ in the order.