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Rebel YSR lawmaker Raju gets bail from SC, barred from speaking on sedition case
YSR Congress Party’s Kanmuri Raghurama Krishnam Raju had alleged police torture during his interrogation by the Andhra Pradesh CID. He was arrested on May 14, weeks after he demanded that chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s bail be cancelled.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to rebel YSR Congress Party member of Parliament Kanmuri Raghurama Krishnam Raju but barred him from speaking to the media on the sedition charges filed against him. The top court accepted the lawmaker’s request after going through his medical report which confirmed that he had suffered a fractured toe and injuries in his leg.
Raju, who was arrested last week by the Andhra Pradesh police on charges of sedition and hate speech, had attributed the injuries to torture by the police. The Andhra Pradesh police have denied torture. At Friday’s hearing, senior lawyer Dushyant Dave, who appeared for the state government, said the injuries could be “self-inflicted” but the bench questioned this theory, maintaining that he had been in police custody all along.
The bench comprising Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai ordered Raju to furnish a personal bond of ₹1 lakh with two sureties of the like amount. But the bench also imposed a gag order, prohibiting him from speaking on the case with the media. The police can question him if required but will have to give him 24-hour notice. Also, the judges ruled that Raju’s lawyer will remain present at a distance during interrogation.
Kanmuri Raghurama Krishnam Raju, who represents the Narasapuram Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district, has been a sharp critic of chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for nearly a year. The state CID has accused Raju of sedition by pointing to his statements over the past year where he allegedly incited members of a community, religion or caste to beat and even kill members of another community or religion.
The sedition case was filed against him weeks after he petitioned a CBI court to cancel the chief minister’s bail in a 2002 disproportionate assets case.
Raju was arrested by Andhra Pradesh’s Crime Investigation Department on May 14. The following day when his application for remand was to be considered, the magistrate noticed injuries in his leg. Raju claimed he was tortured in custody by police but the state denied it.
A three-member medical board of government doctors set up by the high court ruled out torture. Raju approached the top court for bail on May 15, alleging that he had been tortured by the police. Another medical board set up by the head of the army hospital in Secunderabad reported on Friday that the MP had a fractured toe and injuries in his leg leading to swelling of leg, contusions and clotting of blood at spots.
The bench was prima facie convinced that the petitioner possibly was ill-treated during custody and noted his poor medical condition in the context of bypass surgery in December 2020.
Dave pointed out that while being transported from Hyderabad to the army hospital, almost a 300-kilometre drive, Raju refused to travel in the state ambulance and insisted on traveling in his private car, flashing his injured leg to the waiting media persons. Deprecating this conduct, the bench told senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi who was representing the MP. “This conduct of the petitioner to go in a private car was not proper. Tell him not to publicise his injuries. Next time we will take a strict view of this.”
Referring to the charges against him, the Andhra government argued: “Even an ordinary citizen won’t get the protection of the law for making such statements and certainly not an MP who is expected to be responsible in his conduct.” Rohatgi objected to this charge claiming that the case against him amounted to “state-sponsored terrorism” as his client sought cancellation of bail granted to the chief minister in a clutch of criminal cases.
