Police Inspector awarded two-month imprisonment in contempt case

The Telangana High Court awarded two-month imprisonment to a police officer of the rank of Inspector, holding him guilty in a contempt of court case.

Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy of the HC also imposed a fine of ₹ 2,000 on Inspector M. Prem Kumar. The sentence, however, was suspended for two weeks providing an opportunity to the Inspector for an appeal. The contempt case was filed by A. Sekhar Babu and seven others contending that the Inspector failed to provide aid to protect their plots despite specific orders from the HC - passed in 2023.

The petitioners, majority of them senior citizens, stated that despite a specific direction from a single judge of the HC to provide protection to them from illegal interference by three persons (who were made respondents in the writ petition), the then Station House Officer Prem Kumar failed to act. The Inspector contended that he had no knowledge of the earlier order of the HC in the matter. “However, the absence of prior knowledge of the an order cannot justify inaction. It was incumbent upon him to examine the order and take appropriate steps in accordance with law to ensure its implementation,” the judge noted.