State News And Discussion - 3

[Guest]

[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com//1100131/jsp/nation/story_12048866.jsp"][b]Rs 1-lakh rider to bail after public asset damage[/url]

Hyderabad, Jan. 30: Andhra Pradesh High Court has passed a landmark order to nudge students away from violent protests, asking a Telangana agitator to deposit Rs 1 lakh as compensation for damage to public property if he wants bail.



The single-judge bench’s order to college boy Mallikarjun yesterday came less than a year after the high court held political parties liable to pay damages for loss of property during bandhs and demonstrations.



Justice B. Chandrakumar made it clear that the intermediate student, arrested for violence during the Telangana agitation, must shell out this sum over and above the bail bond. He did not fix the bail surety amount, which is usually around Rs 5,000.



Lawyers said Mallikarjun would lose the Rs 1-lakh deposit if he was later found guilty but would probably get it back if acquitted of violence —but added they were not entirely sure because the order was unprecedented.



Mallikarjun has been in a Hyderabad jail for 37 days after he and other students of his college (affiliated to Osmania University) in Mahboobnagar went on the rampage on December 10.[/b]



Police had shown footage of students throwing stones and torching buses to successfully oppose his bail application in the trial court, following which he had appealed in the high court.



Mallikarjun’s lawyer told the high court its order would set a dangerous precedent, and that his client wasn’t rich enough to pay it anyway. The student is from a family of petty traders and farmers and is studying on a social welfare scholarship. The judge later adjourned the bail hearing to Monday.



The government had arrested 310 students in connection with the Telangana protests but let off 298 without booking them in cases. Of the remaining 12, eight have got bail from the lower courts and four, including Mallikarjun, are in jail....

....

Good, it will discourage student to become pawn of politicians.