Hc Stays Case Against Sec’bad Club Prez Over Fire In Building, Legal News, ET LegalWorld – Legal Firms

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Hyderabad: In a temporary relief to Secunderabad Club president R Raghuram Reddy, the high court has stayed the criminal case registered against him for alleged negligence in preventing the fire which gutted the main heritage building of the nearly 150-year-old historical structure on January 16 this year.

Justice Chillakur Sumalatha, while staying the case before the trial court on Thursday, also issued notices to the state and its fire wing asking them to reply within three weeks.

The pre-dawn fire had destroyed the building of the club, one of the oldest in the country, which was built in 1878 by the Britishers. While there were no casualties, the fire destroyed priceless heritage in terms of historic as well as monetary value.

Following the fire, a complaint against Club president Reddy was filed by the Telangana State Disaster Response & Fire Department before the X additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Secunderabad, holding him responsible for the incident. Reddy appeared for two hearings after the magistrate issued summons to him to attend court till case disposal and then challenged the proceedings in HC, urging it to quash the case registered against him.

Reddy’s counsel Dharm-e-sh Jaiswal argued before Justice Sumalatha that the complaint filed before the trial court by the fire department could not make out any case.

“None of the rules cited are applicable to the current case. In any case, the question of negligence would arise only if the president ignored any prior warning or notice by the department. No such notice was issued to him and hence he cannot be charged with any violation,” the counsel said. The case has now been posted to December 1.



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