Ujala white!: MLAs sweat it out to get clean chit from police, courts

Hyderabad: The top priority of MLAs of BRS, Congress and BJP now appears to be getting a clean chit from the police and courts so that they will not face any legal hurdles at the time of filing nominations in the ensuing Assembly elections.

As the Assembly elections are fast approaching, the legislators of all parties are now seeking legal advice regarding the pending cases and are trying to find legal measures that need to be taken to avoid any complications that may affect their political prospects or damage their personal profile.

Sources said that most of them have ‘not-so-serious’ cases booked against them. About 90 MLAs, out of the total of 119, are said to be facing charges in various cases.

The cases against them include holding of dharna, violating section 144, trespassing during agitations at government offices, creating nuisance at ministers’ and official residences, etc. These cases have been pending for years. Some of the BRS MLAs are still facing charges in the pending cases booked during the agitation for separate Telangana before 2014.

According to the ADR survey, “50 out of 88 from TRS, 14 out of 19 from the Congress, six out of 7 from the AIMIM, two from the TDP and one MLA from the BJP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits during the 2018 elections. Now, the legislators are making all-out efforts to get clean chit from the police and the courts.

For instance, the Hyderabad police booked a case against BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao for sharing a photo of a rape victim on the social media. The MLA was booked under Section 228-A of the IPC. A case was also booked by the Banjara Hills police against BRS MLA Patnam Narender Reddy and a few others for allegedly threatening a farmer and confining him to a room recently. Congress MLA Sitakka was also booked for violating lockdown norms during the Covid pandemic. Such kind of cases were booked against many sitting MLAs. They hired legal professionals to get rid of all cases before the Election Commission issued notification. The ensuing Assembly elections will be a big challenge for the sitting MLAs.