Hit-and-run case: Jagan’s quash petition posted for hearing on June 27

Justice Y. Lakshmana Rao of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh posted the quash petition filed by YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the case of death of an elderly man, Ch. Singaiah, during the former’s recent visit to Rentapalla village in Palnadu district, to June 27.

Singaiah had allegedly been crushed under the vehicle in which Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was going in a rally, for which he was named as A2 under Section 105, read with 49, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhitha (BNS), 2023.

During the hearing of the petition on Thursday, Justice Lakshmana Rao agreed to take it up among fresh matters on Friday (June 27) as Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s lawyers pressed for urgent orders for interim protection amidst insistence by the counsels for the State that the matter be put off to July 1.

The Judge observed that perhaps no coercive steps would be taken against the petitioner (Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy).

In his plea, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy submitted that he was innocent and the narration of the facts of the case indicated that the satisfaction of the Station House Officer concerned to register a cognisable offence was not entirely objective.

He alleged that the sequence of events leading to the registration of the FIR and further alterations thereof showed that the charges were tailored to implicate him with political vendetta and political malice.

The former Chief Minister contended that the primary motivation for the State to implicate him in the case was to deter him from engaging with people of the State to espouse the cause of greater public good, whereas his right to move and participate in meetings and his right to speech and expression were consecrated fundamental rights under the Constitution.

He said the FIR filed against him was intended to stifle political dissent against the ruling parties, and it amounted to an abuse of the process of law. The actions of the State in attempting to arrest him despite the absence of a prima facie evidence and non-fulfilment of the statutory requirements were wholly arbitrary, illegal, and violative of his fundamental rights, he argued.

“Arrest is an extraordinary measure that must be resorted to in exceptional circumstances such as when there is a risk of absconding, tampering with the evidence, and influencing of witnesses,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy submitted, pointing out that he did not fall in any one of those categories.