Raghurama alleges torture in remand, HC seeks report

Amaravati: Narasapuram MP K Raghurama Krishna Raju has been sent to remand till May 28 by the magistrate court.

The entire process of remand took place amidst dramatic developments. First, the magistrate returned the remand report presented by the CID saying that it was not in order. Later, when the magistrate asked Raju if he was troubled by CID, he showed his injuries on the legs and alleged that he was beaten by the CID police since Friday night.

He also gave a four-page complaint to the magistrate, in which he said some persons came at night with mask and tied his feet with rope and beat him up with rubber belts and made him to walk with hurt feet. When he could not walk any further they left him.

Late in the evening, the CID again came with revised remand report. Based on it, the magistrate passed orders sending for remand till May 28 but said that he will not be sent to jail till his health condition improves.

Raju urged the magistrate to send him to a private hospital and not to Guntur General Hospital since GGH was a Covid designated hospital.

The magistrate ordered that if need be he may be sent to Ramesh Hospital. The CID court also said that Raju would be under the CRPF security till he was in hospital.

Meanwhile, additional advocate general (AAG) Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy alleged that the MP Raghurama Krishna Raju was misleading the court. He said that the MP was seen healthy till this evening when his family members brought him lunch.

"When the bail petition was rejected, the MP started high drama alleging that the CID police had beaten him up," he said. In the meantime, the MP's advocate and Supreme Court lawer Adinarayana Rao moved habeas corpus petition in High Court seeking special division bench to hear the case.

The AP High Court special division bench led by Justice Praveen Kumar questioned the CID police on the injuries on the legs of Raju. It directed medical board to test the injuries of the MP and submit a report by Sunday afternoon. It also directed the CID to admit the MP in a private hospital for treatment.

It may be noted that the CID charged him under Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 505 (statements conducing public mischief) read with 120B (conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code. It also mentioned two media houses and 'ohters' as accused.

The FIR stated that Raju did not restrict himself to fair criticism of the government, and had made every attempt to create hatred, contempt disaffection towards the government.