Hyderabad: Telangana high court has said it will deliver an order on Friday whether to grant interim protection from arrest to MoS (Home) Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s son, Bandi Sai Bageerath, who was named an accused in a POCSO case for allegedly sexually harassing a minor. The court also directed police to verify the allegations that the girl was holding two birth certificates with different dates of birth.Justice T Madhavi Devi, holding a vacation bench, on Thursday heard the case and warned the counsels, as they were engaged in a heated exchange, of recusing from the case if they “did not maintain decorum” and directed them not to indulge in personal attacks.“None of you will raise your voices in this court. If this is the case, I will recuse from this case,” the judge said.The court also clarified that it would hear the girl’s counsel before passing orders, while posting the petition on anticipatory bail to next week.During the hearing, senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy, appearing for Bageerath, began his submissions stating that “the case registered against Bageerath under the POCSO Act is no doubt a grave offence, but there is no bar in granting an interim bail”.Citing that the girl holds two birth certificates, Niranjan Reddy argued that this has to be examined to establish whether the girl was a minor or not.In response, the judge told the senior counsel to satisfy the court how this case was different from any other case, why protection should be granted to the petitioner and what was the urgency in his case.Niranjan Reddy replied that Bageerath was not different from anyone and that he was entitled to seek court indulgences like any other person. Meanwhile, public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao vehemently opposed the interim protection, stating that the allegations against the petitioner were grave in nature and contained aggravated penetrative assault on a minor among other charges for which punishment, if proved, was up to 20 years.Niranjan Reddy countered saying that initially the FIR based on a detailed, legally weighed complaint with citations of Supreme Court judgments was lodged, it had only allegations of sexual harassment and that later the case was altered with serious POCSO charges as an improvement to the initial complaint.In response, Palle Nageshwar Rao and senior counsel Pappu Nageshwar Rao, appearing for the girl, countered saying that the case was altered after recording the girl’s statement. Initially, the case was registered on a complaint from the girl’s mother and later her statement was recorded.“Court may direct the girl’s statements recorded by the investigating officer, SIT and the magistrate be produced before it,” Pappu Nageshwar Rao said.Opposing the protection to Bageerath, he further argued that the girl’s family was forced to wait at the police station till late night, allowing the petitioner to first file an extortion case against her in Karimanagar.
