HC exempts Revanth from court appearance

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court has exempted CM A Revanth Reddy from appearing before the principal special judicial first-class magistrate at Hyderabad. The case, based on a complaint by BJP leader Kasam Venkateshwarulu, alleged that Revanth referred to a doctored video of Union home minister Amit Shah in 2024 to claim that BJP wanted to do away with reservations.
"Since the petitioner (Revanth) is CM of the state, how can he appear before the trial court? Hence, the CM's appearance before the court is dispensed with," said Justice K Lakshman while hearing the case. The court also issued notice to Venkateshwarulu.
The case is based on Revanth's public meeting in May 2024, where he claimed that if BJP returned to power in Lok Sabha, it would remove reservations for SCs, STs, and BCs. He had referred to a video of Shah to back his claim. BJP leaders later said that the video had been doctored.
In his petition, Revanth contended that the complaint allegedly spoke about a morphed video and in that regard, complaints were filed. If the video in which Shah spoke about reservations is morphed, then the case does not stand, Revanth contended, urging court to quash the case.tnn