Amid high drama, Kaushik Reddy arrested; gets bail

Hyderabad: Amid high drama, A Railway Court in Warangal that awarded a 14-day remand to BRS’ Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy in connection with an extortion case, reversed its decision and granted him conditional bail on Saturday.

Earlier, Kaushik Reddy was arrested by the Warangal Subedari police immediately after he landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad on Saturday early morning. Following his arrest, police transported him to Warangal for further investigation. It’s learnt that Kaushik was about to leave the country.

According to police, cases have been registered against Kaushik Reddy under BNS Sections 308(2), 308(4), and 352, which pertain to attempted culpable homicide not amounting to murder and assault. The incident reportedly stems from a confrontation between Kaushik Reddy and a quarry owner, during which the MLA allegedly issued threats.

It’s alleged that the MLA had already extorted Rs 25 lakh and was demanding another Rs 50 lakh from Uma Devi, wife of a granite quarry operator, Manoj Reddy, for running a quarry near Vangapalli village under Kamalapur mandal in Hanumakonda district.

A case has been registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Subedari Inspector M Ranjith Kumar said that Kaushik demanded money from the quarry operator and produced call records as evidence during court proceedings. Telangana High Court dismissed Kaushik’s quash petition earlier this week. The arrest of Kaushik Reddy triggered huge uproar from the BRS leaders. The main opposition party leaders alleged that the chief minister A Revanth Reddy who claims that his government was ‘Indiramma Rajyam’ was bringing back the Emergency of Indiramma’s era.