Hyderabad, Dec 24 In a relief to former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and former Minister T. Harish Rao, the High Court on Tuesday suspended the notices issued by a lower court in a case related to the damages caused to the Medigadda barrage, a part of Kaleshwaram Project.
The High Court passed the orders on a quash petition filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders. The court ordered notices to Nagavelli Rajalingamurthy, on whose revision petition the lower court had ordered notices.
In August, the Principal Sessions Court, Bhupalpally had issued notices to BRS president and former CM Chandrasekhar Rao, ex-minister Harish Rao, and six others
The lower court had issued notices while hearing a petition of Nagavelli Rajalingamurthy, a resident of Bhupalpally, who contended that Chandrasekhar Rao, Harish Rao, and others acted with undue haste in going ahead with the project and without proper testing to misappropriate huge public funds. Rajalingamurthy cited the sinking of the piers of Medigadda in October 2023, and the visit of officials of the National Dam Safety Authority, several politicians and others to the barrage and contended that the respondent misappropriated public money.
The petitioner had argued that this constitutes offences under Sections 120-B, 420, 386, 406 and 409 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Principal Sessions Court took up the hearing after a lower court refused to hear the case as only special judges are empowered to deal with cases that come under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the IPC. Following this, Rajalingamurthy filed the petition in the sessions court, seeking revision of the order of the First Class Principal Judicial Magistrate of Bhupalpally.
The Sessions Court had issued notices to KCR, Harish Rao, the then special chief secretary, Irrigation, and retired IAS officer Rajat Kumar, Principal Secretary Smitha Sabharwal, Chief Engineer B. Hariram, Chief Engineer N. Sridhar and two representatives of two contracting agencies.
Challenging the notices, KCR and Harish Rao filed a petition in the High Court. They sought orders to set aside the judgement of the lower court. Their counsel argued that the Sessions Court had no jurisdiction to hear the case. He submitted to the High Court that various high courts and the Supreme Court had passed orders in this regard.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, the High Court suspended the notices. It also ordered notice to the petitioner Rajalingamurthy and adjourned the hearing to January 7.
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