31 detained under PD Act in Hyderabad after SC terms it draconian

HYDERABAD: Nearly a month after the Supreme Court said detaining suspects under the Telangana Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act (PD Act) on the presumption that an accused could disrupt law and order was 'draconian', two police commissionerates have used the age-old act to detain 31 men under various charges.
Hearing an appeal challenging a detention order by Cyberabad police against a white-collar offender, the apex court had on July 9 referred to the PD Act’s indiscriminate use as 'draconian'.

Despite the apex court’s remarks, both Rachakonda and Cyberabad police commissionerates have detained musclemen, burglars, peddlers, brothel operators and cyber crooks under PD Act.
The act again came into limelight on Monday when the detention order of Cyberabad police against a 35-year-old law graduate-cum-trader, B Ravikanth, was quashed by the SC. While doing so, the apex court observed that to invoke PD Act against offenders it is not enough to say that the actions of the accused pose a threat to law and order, but they must also affect public order. But between July 9 and August 2, 2021 Hyderabad police have invoked PD Act against 31 people. Hyderabad city has three commissionerates — Cyberabad, Rachakonda and Hyderabad.
Out of the 31 cases, Cyberabad police have invoked the act against 22 people and Rachakonda police against nine. Hyderabad police invoked a PD Act once in July 2021 prior to SC's remarks.
Among the accused booked under the PD Act by city police are Kamalkant Vidyarthi of Bihar and Uttkarsh Singh of Jharkhand for cheating people by creating fake websites that appear similar to the websites of various popular brands, a habitual burglar K Laxman who was detained under the same act previously and a spurious cotton seeds seller K Murali.
Others include a ganja peddler L Santosh, three men who organised a party at a farmhouse illegally and supplied drugs to participants, two chain snatchers who committed two offences, two persons for operating a brothel, nine inter-state burglars from Madhya Pradesh, a history-sheeter for involvement in 12 offences and five accused from Mailardevpally for killing a rival in public.
While quashing the detention order against Ravikanth, accused in five cases booked under the IPC pertaining to various acts of cheating, the SC pointed out that a possible apprehension of breach of law and order can be said to be made out if it is apprehended that the man, if set free, will continue to cheat gullible persons.
Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said that they are following a procedure to invoke PD Act. “I completely agree that the PD Act should be invoked against offenders who are a threat to public order. That is why we have been invoking the act against grave offenders,” Kumar said.