Contempt petition filed against Vijayawada cops

Police involvement in civil matters

Hyderabad: Justice Vilas Afzulpurkar of the High Court at Hyderabad on Wednesday granted time to Andhra Pradesh government to respond to allegations of police involvement in civil matters. The judge was dealing with a contempt petition filed by Tadikonda Chiranjeevi, Vijayawada lawyer seeking punishment to the police commissioner A B Venkateswara Rao and his subordinate police officers responsible for wilfully disobeying court orders.

Senior Counsel C V Mohan Reddy appearing for the petitioner said a Division Bench had termed the “Operation Night Domination,” the search operations at night, as unconstitutional after the petitioner filed a writ petition in the High Court. Consequently, the local police officer locked the premises bought by the petitioner and filed a criminal case against him. Following a writ petition filed by the aggrieved petitioner, a Division Bench had directed the police that any dispute between the vendor and purchaser, the civil court would adjudicate case in due course and till then, interference with the civil rights of the petitioner and his vendors by the police was not called for except to the extent of probing the crimes registered against the petitioner and to take appropriate action in the matter.

Mohan Reddy pointed out that in spite of the court orders, the police was targeting the petitioner. “It is not an isolated case; we received information with regard to interference of the Vijayawada police in civil dispute in view of booming of real estate business in the name of building the new capital,” the Senior Counsel said.

The judge granted time till December 30 for the Counsel for Home Department Andhra Pradesh to respond.