The Central zone police of Hyderabad on Wednesday permitted the Telangana Civil Liberties Committee to hold demonstration at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park on Sunday.
The demonstration was being organised to demand the release of civil rights activists like professor Somasen and revolutionary writer Varavara Rao, who were arrested by Maharashtra police and lodged in prison for past several months. “They applied for permission on June 13 to hold the dharna. We were in the process of the examining it and decided to permit it,” Central zone DCP P. Viswa Prasad said.
The DCP said no specific conditions were imposed for the demonstration. Earlier in the day, CLC secretary Narayana Rao filed a writ petition in Telangana High Court seeking direction to police authorities to permit the demonstration. The petition came up for hearing before Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy.
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The petitioner's counsel V. Raghunath said the CLC apprehended that the police would keep their application pending till the last minute and reject permission in the last minute depriving it of the opportunity even to approach the court. Of late, the government was repeatedly doing so whenever permissions are sought for organising protest rallies, meetings or demonstrations, he said.
While the judge posted the matter for hearing on Thursday, by Wednesday evening the police announced that permission was accorded to the CLC for holding the protest programme.
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Film actor Shivaji, who was facing a case along with former TV9 CEO Ravi Prakash, has filed a writ petition in the High Court on Wednesday seeking to quash the FIR issued against him. Justice G. Sri Devi posted the petition to June 26 for hearing, directing police not to take any coercive action against him.