The Supreme Court on Monday directed a special medical board of the army hospital in Secunderabad to conduct the medical examination of YSR Congress Party MP Kanumuri Raghurama Krishnam Raju who was allegedly subjected to third-degree custodial torture under the draconian sedition charges for criticising Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.R. Gavai passed the directive after taking a prima facie view that the MP had suffered injuries despite having recently undergone a heart surgery.
A critic of the chief minister, Raju had pleaded that he was picked up from his house in Hyderabad on May 14 and subjected to third-degree torture even as his own application before a special CBI court for cancelling the chief minister’s bail in a corruption case was to come up for hearing on May 17.
“The honourable high court failed to notice that the arrest of the petitioner is nothing but personal vendetta of the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh as the petitioner had filed the application for cancellation of the bail and as such the arrest was effected to prevent the petitioner from pursuing the same,” Raju’s appeal in the apex court stated.
“The high court failed to notice that the state police machinery is being misutilised by the chief minister to frame his political opponents in criminal cases and keep them in jail, so that they will not accuse him of being the person who had spent time in jail as an undertrial,” it added.
Raju has approached the apex court after the Andhra Pradesh High Court declined his bail plea. The apex court, while listing the matter for further hearing on May 21, passed the following order: “…Considering the totality of the facts and circumstances ... and the injuries noticed in the medical report, we deem it proper to direct as under:
⚫ The petitioner shall forthwith be taken to the army hospital in Secunderabad for medical examination. The Y-category security, provided under orders of Delhi High Court, shall escort the petitioner only till the army hospital
⚫ The medical exam of the petitioner shall be conducted by the board of three doctors of the hospital to be constituted by the head of the army hospital
⚫ ...The petitioner shall be medically examined in the presence of a judicial officer, who may be nominated by the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court
⚫ The proceedings of medical examination of the petitioner shall be videographed and be submitted to the registrar-general of Telangana High Court in a sealed cover for being transmitted to this court
⚫ We direct that the petitioner shall be admitted in the army hospital and kept there for medical care until further orders, which shall be treated as judicial custody of the petitioner.
The expenses, if any, for hospitalisation in the army hospital shall be born by the petitioner.”
The apex court directed the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary to carry out the order forthwith and ensure that Raju is taken to and reaches the army hospital on Monday itself.
“Let a copy of this order be sent by e-mail to the chief secretary, Andhra Pradesh, the registrar-general of the Telangana High Court as well as the Andhra Pradesh High Court and head of the army hospital for compliance,” the top court added.
Meanwhile, two news channels — TV 5 and ABN News — have filed petitions in Supreme Court seeking quashing of the FIRs registered under the sedition law and various IPC offences against them by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government. The channels have pleaded that the FIRs were lodged against them for airing Raju’s critical views against the chief minister.
The channels have pleaded that if the sedition law is invoked indiscriminately against media houses, it would have a “chilling effect” on the fundamental right to the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19.
