Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the police to see to the immediate release of suspended BJP MLA T Raja Singh. The court gave the order by setting aside the Preventive Detention Act filed against him.
A division bench comprising Justice A Abhishek Reddy and Justice Juvvadi Sridevi passed the order.
Following the High Court order, the suspended BJP MLA will be released from jail after 75 days of imprisonment.
The High Court in its directions had laid conditions for the release of the accused MLA. The court directed that the wife of the detenue (Raja Singh), counsel, and four immediate family members of the MLA can only go to the Cherlapally jail at the time of his release.
The court also laid restrictions on celebration rallies, and public meetings and prohibited Raja Singh from giving interviews to any media including print, electronic media, and social media.
The High Court had also directed the legislator from delivering inflammatory speeches.
Usha Bai, the wife of Raja Singh has filed a writ petition challenging his detention under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act.
Background of Raja Singh’s arrest
Suspended by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in late August, MLA Raja Singh was sent to jail under the PD Act for posting a video in which he makes derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad, leading to massive protests by Muslims across the city of Hyderabad.
His comments lead to scores of people protesting on the streets demanding his arrest. Following his video, the BJP MLA was booked by the Dabeerpura police for his remarks. Many people were also taken into custody by the police after protests broke out.
A huge number of cops were deployed outside the offices of the Hyderabad police commissioner, the Director General of Police at Lakdikapul, and the old police commissioner office at Purani Haveli and other important places in the city after protests erupted against BJP MLA Raja Singh for his remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
At the end of the video, after making derogatory comments, Raja Singh said that whatever he uttered was “comedy” and that he himself did not like what he said. The video was uploaded on Shree Ram Channel Telangana (now made private).
Singh in fact repeated some of the things that now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma said on TV recently, which became an international row after Muslim countries condemned it.
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