Telangana govt rejects appeal to set aside BJP MLA Raja Singh’s detention

The Telangana government has rejected an appeal by Usha Bai, wife of jailed legislator T Raja Singh, to revoke the detention orders against him under the Preventive Detention Act. A memo issued by the General Administration (Spl. Law & Order) Department dated October 19 said that after careful examination of Usha Bai’s representation, the state government observed that “there are no valid grounds and reasons made out therein to set aside/revoke the detention orders.” Raja Singh was detained by the Telangana police under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act on August 25, after his remarks against Prophet Mohammed triggered protests in Hyderabad. He was suspended by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon after his remarks. 

Hyderabad police had said that according to their records, 101 criminal cases had been registered against Raja Singh since 2004 in different police stations in the city, of which 18 were related to communal offences. He has since been lodged in the Cherlapally Central Prison. 

Soon after his remarks against the Prophet, which he made in a video disparaging standup comic Munawar Faruqui after his Hyderabad show, Raja Singh was arrested by the city police on August 23 amid widespread protests. However, the 14th additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) court in Hyderabad granted him bail the same day, accepting Raja Singh’s counsel’s submission that the police had not issued notice to the accused, as stipulated under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). 

Both Congress and AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) had demanded that the PD Act be invoked against Raja Singh for repeated instances of provocative remarks. On August 25, he was arrested for a second time, and the PD Act was invoked. Speaking to TNM on Wednesday, Raja Singh’s advocate K Karuna Sagar said that the memo rejecting Usha Bai’s appeal was not a surprise. “This order will not affect the writ petition pending in the High Court against the PD Act on MLA Raja Singh. The rejection order will be challenged before the High Court," he said.