Hyderabad: Telangana Police have booked State Excise Minister Srinivas Goud, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana, and officials from the District Administration after a court here chided the police for non-compliance on its earlier orders to initiate criminal action against the Minister and others accused of acting in connivance with him.
The case was filed after the court heard an application by Raghavendra Raju of Mahabubnagar, seeking execution of the court's earlier orders directing the police to book the Minister and others who have aided him in tampering with the election affidavit. The application came up for hearing before the Special Court dealing with MLAs and MPs.
The court asked for a status report in the case and the Public Prosecutor assured the Court that he will get instructions from the government and submit the same before the court. The court wanted the status to be updated with the progress and wanted to know what was preventing the police from registering the case.
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The court said the FIR has to be registered before 4 pm and warned that deviation from the order would attract the contempt of court.
After the court rap, the Mahabubnagar Second Town Police said they have registered an FIR under several sections including provisions of forgery and cheating in connection with the alleged tampering of the election affidavits. The FIR was registered at immediately after the court's observation.
Among the individuals named in the FIR are Minister Srinivas Goud, CEC Rajeev Kumar, the then State's CEO Sanjiv Kumar, and other officers who served in various capacities during the 2018 elections including Shashank Goyal, Ronaldras, J. Srinivas, K. Venkatesh Goud, A. Padmasree, S. Venkat Rao, Advocate Rajendra Prasad and Vishrantha.
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On July 31, 2023, the court had directed the second town police station SHO of Mahabubnagar to register an FIR against the minister and officials and conduct a thorough investigation. Despite the court's instructions, the police had not taken any action in the complaint from Raghavendra Raju.
