High Court Orders Police Not To Arrest Harish Rao

Former minister and BRS MLA Harish Rao was granted relief today by the Telangana High Court in a criminal case filed against him by the Punjagutta police.

The court directed the police that Rao should not be arrested in connection with the case, but that they may continue their investigation.

Rao has been asked to cooperate with the police in this regard by the court.

The court also issued notices to Chakradhar Goud, who had lodged a complaint against the BRS MLA, and adjourned the hearing of the case.

Rao had filed the petition in court yesterday seeking the quashing of the case registered based on a complaint filed by Goud, saying that the case was filed just to extract political vendetta.

He said that the police had registered the case against him, Radhakishan Rao and others without conducting a preliminary inquiry into the contents of the complaint regarding alleged phone-tapping.

He also said that there was nothing against him in the complaint and that it was filed with fabricated facts.

"If the police arrest me based on this complaint, it will damage my political career as well as my reputation. The phone-tapping according to him happened long back - why didn't he lodge a complaint with the police until now?" he asked.

For the uninitiated, four cases have been filed against Rao so far for allegedly criticising Revanth Reddy and the Congress government after the Congress came to power in the State.