HYDERABAD: A city court in Hyderabad on Thursday, June 12, 2025, released an order of acquittal in a case registered in 2023 against Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for making derogatory comments against police men. The case, first lodged in Nirmal district and later transferred to Begum Bazar police station in Hyderabad, was based on a complaint by a policeman, who claimed that Reddy’s comments made during a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on August 14, 2023, were defamatory and intended to demoralize the police force.
After examining the evidence and Reddy’s defense, an MP-MLA court, set up exclusively to try anti-corruption cases, acquitted the Chief Minister in the sections under special laws of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). As per Court’s order, “not guilty ” was the verdict for the charge against the accused under certain sections of IPC. So the accused was acquitted.” Reddy, who twice this year appeared before the court on February 20 and May 22, had consistently denied the allegations calling them as baseless, and favoured trial. The court had, during the May 22 hearing, deferred the decision to June 12 after Reddy compiled with an order to appear in person, following a warning of penalties for non-compliance.
During the said press interaction, Reddy, who was president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), was reported to have made the statement that “I noted the names of Mahabubnagar’s police officials in the diary and I would use slang against them, and I would ‘remove their uniforms and beat them.” The complainant claimed that these remarks had been both demeaning and calculated to denigrate the police service. Reddys counsel on his part argued that the comments came from political speech and didn’t amount to criminal act.
The acquittal is a major legal reprieve for Reddy, who has fought several legal battles during his political career. There was no official comment from the Chief Minister’s office on the verdict which came as a huge relief to Reddy whose camp felt that the court’s decision vindicated his stand that he had been falsely implicated at the behest of political rivals. The case had attracted attention, because of Reddy’s high-profile status and the political tensions surrounding that time in Telangana.
The investment comes at a time when Reddy is battling hard to improve the law and order in Telangana with strict orders issued against crimes like drug peddling and others in public folowing the same trend. Legal experts say the acquittal might give Reddy a leg up in dealing with other pending legal cases against him, including another cash-for-vote case dating back to 2015 which is now before the Supreme Court. The court’s decision on Thursday is a reminder of the judiciary’s role in handling politically sensitive cases with independence.
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