Hyderabad (Telangana) : Karimnagar MP and BJP Telangana state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is the main accused in class 10 Hindi question paper leak case, was granted bail on Thursday late night. The bail was granted after arguments that went on for eight hours till 10 o'clock in the night with conditions granted by the court not to act to influence the witnesses.
As the police filed a petition to hand him over to their custody, there was suspense throughout the day on Thursday. The Warangal police arrested Bandi Sanjay in this case on Wednesday and took him to Karimnagar jail. Hanumakonda District Chief Munsiff Magistrate Rapolu Anitha conducted a long hearing on the bail application filed by Bandi Sanjay's lawyers on Thursday.
Later at 10 o'clock in the night, the court ordered to grant bail. Along with a personal surety of Rs 20 thousand, several conditions have been imposed. Bandi was told not to leave the country and not to act in a way that could influence the witnesses and ordered to cooperate with the police in the investigation of this case.
Sanjay is likely to be released on Friday morning. On the other hand, the High Court has issued notices to the state government regarding the petitions filed separately by Sanjay and BJP.
The BJP ranks heaved a sigh of relief as the magistrate granted conditional bail after about eight hours of arguments. As per the orders of the court, the Magistrate issued orders to the superintendent of the Karimnagar Jail to release Bandi Sanjay after two persons submitted surety bonds. According to the rules, if the bail orders are received by the jail authorities before 5.30 pm, they will be released before night. It seems that Sanjay is likely to be released after 7 am on Friday due to the court order being issued at night.
High Court Refusal of Interim Orders
On Thursday, the High Court heard separately on the petitions filed by BJP Bhagyanagar district president S. Surender Reddy, alleging the illegal detention of Bandi Sanjay and the order issued by the Magistrate sending him to remand in the question paper leakage case. However, it refused to pass an interim order. Chief Justice Justice Ujjal Bhuyan took up the hearing on Sanjay's petition. Senior advocate N. Ramachandra Rao, appearing for the petitioner, said that the police during the arrest of Sanjay did not pay heed to the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the Arnesh Kumar case.
After registering a case at Karimnagar police station, Sanjay was brought to Bommalaramaram station, which is 150 kilometers away, he said. Sanjay has allegedly been driven around in a police vehicle to harass him mentally and physically.
When the Chief Justice asked what the allegations were against the petitioner, Advocate General BS Prasad replied that he had conspired to damage the reputation of the government by leaking the question papers. It was questioned whether there was evidence that the petitioner had committed a crime. The court commented that the records do not show anything except circulating information that is in the public domain.
Responding to this, the AG said that Bandi can enjoy his rights as an MP, but he should not participate in such conspiracies. After hearing the arguments, the Chief Justice issued notices to the government and the principal of Kamalapuram ZPHS, M. Sivaprasad, saying that he would conduct an inquiry into the legality of the remand. The hearing was adjourned to the 10th of this month.
