Supreme Court summons Telangana DGP after confusion regarding chargesheet date

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) to be present before it in a matter where counsel for the State could not answer queries concerning a case [Vatti Janaiah v State of Telangana].

A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti noted that the prosecution and arguing counsel were not in sync with case details regarding when the the chargesheet was filed.

"We are indeed surprised by the response of the Government counsel as the respective dates of filing of the chargesheets should either be readily accessible or the instructing officer should have indicated the relevant dates of the chargesheets ... The disconnect between the prosecution and the Government counsel is clearly discernible," it stated.

The DGP was directed to be present before the Court on October 4, either via video conference or in person. State counsel were also asked to be ready with the information on chargesheet.

The observations came while hearing a plea by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Vatti Janaiah Yadav, who was earlier part of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

He had moved the top court last year alleging criminal persecution by the then BRS-led State government after he quit BRS and joined BSP.

The top court had in October 6 last year sought the response of the Telangana government in the matter, and provided interim protection from arrest in thirteen first information reports (FIRs) against him.

Yadav had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections from the Suryapet constituency, losing out to the BRS candidate.

Advocates Vinay P Tripathi, B Shravanth Shanker, Prerna Robin, Shivam Kunal and B Yeshwanth Raj appeared for Yadav.

Senior Advocate Nikhil Goel with advocates Devina Sehgal, Rajiv Kumar Choudhry, S Uday Bhanu, Siddhi Gupta, Ashutosh Ghade, Adithya Koshy Roy and Naveen Goel appeared for the State of Telangana.

[Read order]