Thaindian News

Hyderabad, Oct 2 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh government has initiated the process to withdraw cases against students and others who participated in the agitations for and against separate Telangana state last year, Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy said Saturday.

She told reporters here that the process for withdrawal of cases has begun at the district level.

The cases would be reviewed over the next 15 to 20 days and the number of cases to be withdrawn would be known only after the process is completed. “The government will issue an order withdrawing the cases,” she said.

According to Reddy, police filed 1,171 cases against 5,374 people from November last year to Aug 15 this year. She said while withdrawing petty cases would not be a problem, cases relating to serious offences like attack on police, damaging buses and other public and private property would be reviewed before a decision is taken on them.

The state government started the process of withdrawing cases against Telangana and Samaikyandhra (united Andhra) agitators a day after Chief Minister K.Rosaiah held high-level meeting with Sabita Reddy, Director General of Police K. Aravinda Rao and former home minister K.Jana Reddy.

The decision to drop the cases was taken on the recommendation of a committee comprising Sabita Reddy and Jana Reddy.

This would meet a major demand of all the political parties and groups fighting for separate Telangana state. Congress leaders from the region had even petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram on this last month.

It was Chidambaram who had announced Dec 9 last year that cases against students and others during Telangana movement would be withdrawn. However, the cases could not be withdrawn due to various legal issues involved.

More cases were later booked in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions when students and other groups took to streets and resorted to violence, opposing the demand for a separate Telangana state.