A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Justices C. Praveen Kumar and K. Lalitha on Wednesday ordered that contempt proceedings be initiated against the Additional Director-General of Police (CID) and the CID’s Mangalagiri Station House Officer (SHO) for not sending Narsapuram MP K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju to Ramesh Hospital for a check-up on May 17, even when the Supreme Court was hearing the Special Leave Petition filed by him for bail.
According to official sources, on May 15, the VI Additional Junior Civil Judge in Guntur, before whom the MP was produced, ordered that he be examined physically in Ramesh Hospital and the Government General Hospital (GGH), Guntur. This order was passed under Section 54 of the Cr.P.C.
While the above order was passed, Mr. Raju’s advocate moved the High Court by way of a habeas corpus saying that the Magistrate had not ordered remand yet, which resulted in the illegal detention of the MP.
Upon hearing the matter Saturday evening, the High Court directed that the MP be sent for examination before a medical board at the Guntur GGH. The court ordered that since the Magistrate also wanted the MP to be checked at Ramesh Hospital, the same should be followed. The medical examination was completed on May 16 and the medical board determined that there were no physical injuries on the MP’s body.
When the matter came up for hearing in the High Court on Wednesday, the Judges said there has been a contempt of their order dated May 15.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) P. Sudhakar Reddy told the court that the order copy was received only at 11 p.m. and that Mr. Raju could not be sent for an examination at that time since the jail authorities would not allow it. Besides, the Supreme Court had started hearing the matter on May 17 and passed its order.
The High Court did not entertain the AAG’s argument and observed that the Additional DGP (CID) and the SHO could have sent the MP to Ramesh Hospital in the morning of May 17 even when the apex court was hearing his SLP but they did not.
