Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh convicted, given bail

The case pertains to a Beef Festival held at the Osmania University in 2015 and a protest led by Raja Singh against it. He was taken into preventive detention and moved to Bollarum police station, where he allegedly attacked police officials.

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BJP MLA T Raja Singh (Photo: Facebook/@RajaSinghOfficial)

3 min readHyderabadJan 30, 2021 03:16 PM IST First published on: Jan 30, 2021 at 03:16 PM IST

Telangana BJP Legislator T Raja Singh was Friday convicted by a special court set up to try criminal cases against MLAs and MPs. He was sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000. The court gave the MLA from Goshamahal one month’s time to appeal against the order in the High Court and also granted bail.

The case pertains to a Beef Festival held at the Osmania University in 2015 and a protest led by Raja Singh against it. He was taken into preventive detention by the Police and moved to Bollarum police station, where he allegedly attacked police officials.

The Bollarum police had booked a case against him invoking sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging duties) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The court found the MLA guilty of the offence on Friday.

Raja Singh became the first public representative from Telangana to be convicted by the special court set up to try cases against MLAs and MPs.

Responding to the judgment, Singh took to Twitter and said “To protect Gau Mata, I’m even prepared for the death sentence.”

Narrating the turn of events in 2015, Singh said that he and a few of his followers tried to visit Osmania University upon receiving information about the Beef Festival on the campus. On their way to the university, police detained them and moved them to Bollarum PS.

“At Bollaram PS Inspector lathi charged on my karyakartas which I have protested and argued with Inspector that even you are Hindu, karyakartas are here to stop the beef festival, it’s even your duty to save Gau Mata. Upon this, he has filed an FIR against me,” Singh said.

The police submitted video evidence of the events that transpired inside the police station to prove use of criminal force against police personnel by the MLA.

The Special Court trying MPs and MLAs have acquitted or discharged 49 legislators from the state in 86 criminal cases during 2018 and 2019, a Right To Information response to The Forum for Good Governance recently revealed. In the list of cases discharged or accused acquitted, the RTI response states that MLA Raja Singh tops the chart with him being let off in 10 cases, followed by CM K Chandrasekhar Rao in 8 cases.