Telangana HC dismisses petition of former BRS MLA in Lagacherla case

Hyderabad, Dec 4 The Telangana High Court on Wednesday dismissed former BRS MLA Patnam Narender Reddy's petition, seeking the quashing of the case against him relating to the attack on government officials in Vikarabad district.

The High Court, which had last week reserved its orders, pronounced the same on Wednesday, dismissing the petition of Narender Reddy to quash the orders of a lower court.

Justice K. Lakshman, however, asked the lower court to consider the bail petition of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader on the basis of merits.

The High Court on November 29 quashed two of the three FIRs registered against the former MLA. Mahender Reddy’s wife Shurthi questioned the registration of three First Information Reports (FIRs) in the same case. The court agreed with the arguments put forward by the former MLA’s counsel and quashed two FIRs.

Vikarabad District Collector Prateek Jain and some other officials were attacked by a mob at Lagacharla village during a public hearing on land acquisition for ‘Pharma Village’ on November 11. The incident in Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s Assembly constituency Kodangal had triggered a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and the main opposition BRS with the former blaming BRS leaders for the violence.

Bomraspet police station had registered a case against Narender Reddy for allegedly provoking farmers to violently resist land acquisition. Following separate complaints from the Mandal Revenue Officer and the Deputy Superintendent of Police, two more FIRs were registered.

The former MLA from Kodangal constituency is accused number one in the cases registered by the Vikarabad police in connection with the attack. He was arrested from Hyderabad on November 13, and the same day, a court sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.

A local court in Kodangal in Vikarabad on November 28 extended the judicial remand of Narender Reddy till December 11,

Meanwhile, due to public resistance, the state government last week withdrew the notification for land acquisition for the proposed ‘Pharma Village’. It now plans to acquire land for the establishment of a multipurpose industrial park. The notifications for acquiring 1,358.37 acres of assigned/patta land in Hakeempet, Polepally, and Lagacherla villages of Dudyal Mandal for the establishment of Pharma Village were issued in July-August 2024. The Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) had proposed to acquire 71.39 acres of land in Polepally and 632.26 acres in Lagacherla village.