Closed case doesn’t mean no threat: Telangana HC orders security for BRS leader

Ragidi Laxman Reddy was attacked by unidentified gunmen in 2013.

Hyderabad: A Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader who was shot at over a decade ago will get police protection, even though the case was closed without anyone being caught, after the Telangana High Court ruled that an unsolved attack is reason enough to take a threat seriously.

Justice EV Venugopal ordered the state government to provide armed security to Ragidi Laxman Reddy, who had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Malkajgiri on a BRS ticket.

Reddy was attacked by unidentified gunmen in 2013. A case was registered, security was provided to him but that protection was later withdrawn. The police eventually closed the case on the ground that the attackers were never identified.

When Reddy went to court seeking his security back, the state argued there was no current threat and pointed to the closure of the case as proof.

What the court said

The court did not buy that argument. It observed that just because a case has been closed does not mean the danger has gone away, especially when the people who carried out the attack have never been found or punished.

The court allowed Reddy’s petition and directed the state to provide him gunmen security on an advance payment basis, meaning Reddy will bear the cost of the security personnel deployed.