Hyderabad: Justice K Lakshman of the Telangana High Court directed police not to arrest former BRS MLA from Mahbubabad, Shankar Naik, till Dec 2 in an alleged illegal land grab case.
However, the judge made it clear that there was no stay on the investigation. The judge’s direction came in response to a plea filed by Naik, whose counsel Ramana Rao, informed the court that the petitioner had been falsely implicated in the land grabbing and illegal trespass case.
The senior counsel informed the court that the petitioner was not even present at the alleged scene of offence.
A complaint was made at Subedari police station, Warangal district, against the petitioner by one Jallipalli Padmavathi, a govt teacher, who had alleged that some miscreants using Naik’s name had trespassed into her land and resorted to theft of certain items worth 4lakh.
The counsel for the petitioner alleged that police had intentionally registered the case against the petitioner with a motive to restrain him from attending a dharna scheduled to be held in Mahabubabad district to express solidarity with the farmers who were arrested by the police in Lagacherla incident. The judgealso issued notices to the defacto complainant and the state directing them to respond.The matter was adjourned to Dec 2 for further hearing.
