Hyderabad: HC warns Karimnagar top cop in contempt case

HYDERABAD: Making it clear that police orders cannot override CrPC, Justice Sanjay Kumar of the Telangana high court on Friday came down heavily on Karimnagar police commissioner Kamalasan Reddy, assistant commissioner Tirupathi and station house officer (SHO) Shashidhar Reddy for repeatedly raiding a resort in the town despite a restraint order from the court.
The judge was hearing a contempt case filed by Pushpanjali Country Resort at Teegalatjattapalli near Karimnagar which charged the police with repeatedly interfering in the running of their resort. The police have been making raids to prevent people from playing cards there.
Justice Sanjay Kumar, in November 2015, gave a direction to the Karimnagar police not to interfere with the card game of Rummy (13 card game) whatever be the stakes. This was because a division bench of the high court ruled that the playing of this game need not be penalized.
However, the judge, in his November 2015 order, directed the Pushpanjali resort to install video cameras and record the entire recreational activities in the resort and preserve the data at least for a period of a fortnight for the police to check it.
To ensure that this card game doesn't degrade into gambling, the CCTVs at the resort were ordered to be connected to the jurisdictional police station and also to the SP (Now CP) office. If the gaming places are not connected to the CCTV, the police can take action, Justice Sanjay said in his order.
When the police didn't stop the raids even after this order, the resort’s acting President V Jagapathi Rao filed a contempt case in the court making Reddy, ACP Tirupathi, and SHO Shashidhar as respondents.
The judge grew furious when the petitioner’s counsel told him that they were raided four times after the judgment. And there was a huge raid on the same resort and arrests too were made after the high court gave contempt notices to the police in the case!
Pointing out the discrepancies in the police version, the judge shot a series of posers to the police counsel. “The police went with a huge platoon of policemen, some in plain clothes and arrested all those in the resort.
This is a premeditated effort by the police. At one stage you say the resort did not install CCTV. Now you are saying they are not working. None of the police men will be let off from this case so easily. There is a limit to the police excesses,” the judge said. Let the advocate general come and assist the court, he said and posted the case to February 15.