VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday quashed a part of the first information report registered against three farmers, belonging to Scheduled Caste hailing from Krishnayapalem in Guntur district.The single-judge bench headed by Justice M.

Satyanarayana Murthy observed that registration of crime by the police on the basis of a complaint lodged by Ravi Babu against the petitioners belonging to SC was a serious illegality.

The court said that in the absence of any allegation to constitute criminal conspiracy, the proceedings against the petitioners for the offence punishable under Section 120 B were liable to be quashed. So was the case with offences booked under sections 3(1) (r)(s) and 3 (2) of the SC/ST Act as the accused belonging to SC, the court observed.

The court also did not accept the offences like unlawful assembly punishable under Section 143 of IPC and also wrongful restraint punishable under Section 340 of IPC and others as the petitioners were booked for such offences.However, the court observed that the petition was partly allowed and permitted the police to proceed against the petitioners to investigate the crime for the offence punishable under Section 506 (2) of IPC. Earlier, Epuri Ravi Babu had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that when he tried to settle a quarrel as some people parked a tractor across the Krishnayapalem bridge disrupting passage of vehicles on October 23, 2020, he was abused by caste and even threatened to be trodden with the tractor.He named 11 persons in the complaint.

Based on it, police booked them under Sections 120 (B), 143, 341, 506 read with 149 IPC and other sections of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

 Subsequently, three farmers filed a petition in the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR registered against them.

Their main grievance was that though they belonged to SC, they were booked under SC/ST Act, 1989. Petitioners’ counsel Karumanchi Indraneel Babu argued that registration of a crime against a SC based on a complaint lodged by another SC, was a grave illegality.