Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy, YSRC Macherla MLA, has been granted conditional bail by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The court has directed that no action should be taken against him until June 6.
This development comes in the wake of Reddy seeking anticipatory bail in a case related to vandalizing the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) during the state elections. The court’s decision provides him with interim protection from arrest.
Background
The case against Pinnelli involves the alleged vandalizing of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) during the state elections on May 13. The Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered the police to take strict action against those responsible for damaging EVMs. Then the police charged him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Read More: Who is Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy: Early Life to EVM Controversy
In response to the charges, Pinnelli approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking anticipatory bail. His advocate, Niranjan Reddy, argued that the sections under which the case was booked were bailable, and hence the Pinnelli should be granted anticipatory bail. He also pointed guidelines of the Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar case, if there are sections punishable under seven years, 41A notices should be served on the accused.
Advocate, Niranjan Reddy objected to the Election Commission action which were taken after seeing the video released by Nara Lokesh on X (Twitter) Platform. He also raised questions on its authenticity.
While the hearing was on, Election Commission’s counsel requested additional time to submit their counter. Following this, Justice Jyotirmayi, single bench granted conditional bail to the MLA Pinnelli till until June 5. The court also made it clear that no action should be taken against him until June 5. The case has been adjourned to June 6 for the next hearing. This gives Pinnelli some relief from the legal proceedings, albeit temporarily.
Earlier during the day, Tension situation prevailed in Palnadu due to rumors of Pinnelli will surrender in the court. Telugu Desam also gave a ‘Chalo Macherla’ call to meet victims of the poll violence in Macherla. Police foiled the Chalo Macherla call by putting several Telugu Desam leaders under house arrest, including Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao and Nakka Anand Babu.
