Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday granted conditional bail to YSRC Macherla MLA Pinneli Ramakrishna Reddy. The court made it clear that no action would be taken against Pinneli till June 6 and adjourned the next hearing of the case till June 6.
Ramakrishna Reddy moved a lunch motion before the AP High Court on Thursday, seeking anticipatory bail. When the court started hearing on the anticipatory bail plea, advocate Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the Macherla MLA, said that if the incident had happened on May 13, the FIR should have been filed on May 15.
Further, the lawyer objected to the action taken by the Election Commission after watching the video released by opposition leader Nara Lokesh on Twitter. He said that the FIR has mentioned the involvement of unknown people in this case.
Niranjan Reddy underlined that the video on Twitter may have been tampered with. He sought anticipatory bail for Pinneli on the grounds that the mentioned sections provide for a punishment of up to seven years.
The advocate said that as per the Supreme Court guidelines in the Arnesh Kumar case, if there are sections punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, then 41A notice should be given to the accused.
While the hearing was going on, the Election Commission’s counsel sought time to file its reply.
After this, single bench judge Justice Jyotirmoyee granted conditional bail to the Macherla MLA till June 6.
Earlier in the day, a tense situation had arisen in Palnadu area following rumors that Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy had decided to surrender in court. Telugu Desam also called for Chalo Macherla to meet the victims of election violence.
Police thwarted the Chalo Macherla call by placing several TDs, including state general secretary and former minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, TD politburo member Nakka Anand Babu, senior leader Kanaparthi Srinivas Rao and TD Macherla ticket aspirant Julakanti Brahmananda Reddy under house arrest. ,
A large number of police were also deployed in Narasaraopet on Thursday as there were rumors that the Macherla MLA would surrender in the Narasaraopet court.
However, Ramakrishna Reddy chose to approach the AP High Court for anticipatory bail.
