ENS

Adilabad, Oct 22: District and sessions court judge N Ravishankar today upheld the verdict of the Judicial First Class Magistrate court at Boath which sentenced former Union minister and TD leader S Venugopalachary to undergo six months imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 500 for allegedly assaulting a head constable of Boath police station nine years ago.

Soon after the judge upheld the verdict, Venugopalachary, who was present in the court, was taken to the district jail but when he complained of chest pain, he was taken to Rajiv Institute of Medical Sciences in the town and was later shifted to NIMS in Hyderabad.

The lawyers of Venugopalachary plan to move the AP High Court challenging the lower court’s decision.

According to Boath police, the incident took place on March 5, 1999 when head constable Harishchandra (HC 615) went to the TD leader, who was attending an official programme in Boath, to convey a message that the then Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi wanted to speak to him.

After a few minutes, Venugopalachary is said to have asked the head constable to withdraw the cases filed against TDP activists of the nearby Pochera village.

When the head constable said that he was not the authority concerned and would inform his higher ups for necessary action, Venugopalachary insisted that it was he (head constable) who registered the cases and he should withdraw them. Later, both entered into a wordy duel following which Venugopalachary allegedly assaulted the head constable. The judge M V Johnson awarded six months jail sentence and directed the accused to pay a fine of Rs 500 on February 22, 2006.

The TD leader challenged the verdict in the district and sessions court here which dismissed his petition on Tuesday.