The Telangana government has issued instructions to the police to lift the sedition and UAPA case registered against the former University of Hyderabad Professor G Haragopal and five others.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed Director General of Police (DGP) Anjani Kumar to withdraw the provisions of the draconian UAPA slapped against Prof Haragopal, Padmaja Shaw, V Raghunath, Gaddam Laxman, Gunti Ravinder and Suresh Kumar.
KCR instructed the DGP on Saturday to immediately initiate the process of withdrawing the charges against all of them.
The case was registered in August 2022 by the Tadvai Police in Mulugu district under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 124-A (sedition), and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3(2) of the UAPA.
On 17 June, news emerged that the Tadwai police had registered a case against Prof Haragopal and others in August last year under UAPA. The FIR mentioned that the accused had tried to “take over the power of the democratically elected government at gunpoint”. The accused said they were not aware of the case until 17 June, despite the fact that the case was filed on August 19, 2022. The inclusion of their names came to light when the police were forced to furnish the FIRs filed against Chandramouli, president of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), based on the direction of the Ranga Reddy district court.
The FIR had the names of 152 human rights activists and left cadres.
