HC quashes 2011 Million March cases against KCR, KTR, Harish Rao

Hyderabad: In another relief to BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, party working president KT Rama Rao and senior leader T Harish Rao, Telangana high court on Friday quashed three criminal cases registered against them during the 2011 Million March protest at Tank Bund. Justice K Sujana passed the orders while allowing criminal petitions filed by the leaders. The cases, registered at the central crime station, Hyderabad, had named KCR, KTR and Harish Rao as A-2, A-3 and A-4 among 23 accused. The high court's latest order comes against the backdrop of earlier relief granted to KCR and Harish Rao. On April 22, the court directed the state not to take coercive steps against them based on the Justice PC Ghose Commission report into alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project. The court had held that the inquiry findings were prejudicial to their conduct and reputation. In the criminal cases, the FIRs alleged that a mob of around 50 persons, including the petitioners, abused mediapersons in filthy language, snatched cameras and microphones, assaulted them, and threw a video camera into the Tank Bund lake during the March 3 protest held as part of the Telangana statehood agitation. Police later filed a chargesheet, and the trial court in Hyderabad named the three leaders as absconding accused. In 2013, however, the trial court acquitted all the accused. Friday's ruling effectively closes the long-pending Million March cases against the BRS leadership.