SHO HELD GUILTY FOR ATTACK ON PETITIONER

Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday found fault with the attack on a petitioner by shopkeepers of Siddiamber Bazaar in the city for filing a PIL to remove encroachments from pavements in the bazaar.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a PIL by Lakshmi Nivas Agarwal and another in the basis of a letter by Prof. B.R. Sant to the Chief Justice seeking remarks from the GHMC for not taking any action on the letter issued by ministry of urban development union of India in November 2016 for removal of encroachments from footpaths.

Agarwal while complaining that GHMC and police authorities connived with shopkeepers and the latter assaulted him with sticks and rods. He placed photographs of the attack before the bench.

He urged the court to call for the CCTV footage to identify the persons indulged in the attack.

The bench, while expressing displeasure over the attack, made it clear that the Station House Officer of Afzalgunj police station had to be personally held responsible for the attack.

The bench told the petitioner to file a written affidavit with all the details.

On the taken-up case, the bench said, “We are all well aware of the state of footpaths in the city. We are forced to walk on the roads due to encroachments.”

While issuing notices to the principal secretary to municipal administration and the GHMC commissioner, it directed them to file affidavits explaining the steps taken to free the footpaths of encroachments.