Amaravati: In a sweeping order issued Friday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the arrest of social media activist Savindra Reddy, highlighting a series of procedural violations and discrepancies in official police reports.
The division bench of Justices R. Raghunandan Rao and T. Chandra Dhana Sekhar observed “primary evidence” of an illegal arrest and noted that Reddy appeared to have been falsely implicated in a ganja case.
The court found stark contradictions— the police claimed Reddy was arrested at 8:30 pm on September 22, but the mediators’ report was prepared an hour earlier at 7:30 pm. Further, phone records showed Reddy’s mobile was switched off at 6:21 pm in Tadepalli, supporting claims he was detained far earlier than stated by the police.
The bench criticized the police for not wearing uniforms during the arrest and for failing to register a First Information Report (FIR) even after Reddy’s wife, Lakshmi Prasanna, filed a complaint at 7 pm the same night. Her complaint was merely recorded in a general diary, not accepted as a formal case.
The bench sealed all major records, including call data, CCTV footage from the police station, the remand report, and the wife’s complaint, instructing the Registrar (Judicial) to hand them over to the CBI investigating officer.
The CBI Joint Director was instructed to lead a preliminary inquiry and submit a report. Until then, the court put a stay on producing Reddy before a magistrate, with the next hearing scheduled for October 13.
The court invoked its powers under Article 226, emphasizing that individual liberty cannot be encroached upon unilaterally by police and that the judiciary will intervene if “objectionable” conduct and disregard for Supreme Court arrest guidelines are found.
