Pawan Kalyan gets notice from Guntur court over his remarks against ‘volunteers’ in Andhra Pradesh

He alleged that village volunteers were aiding anti-social elements in women-trafficking.

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Details of the case

The public prosecutors moved Guntur district court following the state government’s order (GO) 16 issued on 20 July, 2023, to initiate legal action against Pawan Kalyan,

The court assigned the case to the 4th Additional District Court Judge Sharath Babu, who ordered Pawan Kalyan to appear before the court on 25 March.

The case against Kalyan was registered under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Under these sections, a person guilty of criminal defamation can face up to two years in jail.

Jana Sena legal cell general secretary and high court advocate Koteswar Rao asked how the government could register a case when the remarks were not proven false.

Further, the legal cell member confirmed to South First that they were yet to go through the notices and would file their response. They may even approach the state high court to quash the case, he said.

Earlier, following Kalyan’s remarks, volunteers protested across the state, and a woman volunteer filed a case in the Vijayawada Metropolitan Magistrate Court.

However, the court dismissed it on 26 July, 2023, citing insufficient grounds to justify the private complaint.

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The remarks

It all started on the evening of 9 July, 2023, at a roadshow in Eluru where Kalyan launched the second leg of his Varahi Vijaya Yatra.

While addressing the gathering, he trained his guns at the lakhs of village and ward volunteers in the state.

“There are at least 18,000 women that have gone missing in the last few years in the state and they remain untraced. Top-ranking officials of central intelligence agencies shared with me that the lakhs of village volunteers are collecting information about single, distressed women in the state and are sharing it with woman-traffickers,” Kalyan said.

“There are a few top YSRCP leaders behind these woman-traffickers. Central intelligence officials asked me to alert the general public here in Andhra Pradesh,” he added.

The next day, addressing party workers in Eluru, Pawan Kalyan offered an explanation for his comments, stating that he was not against volunteers and the system but believed it was important to limit the disclosure of unnecessary information.

Pawan also criticised the state government for exploiting the youth by offering a meagre payment of ₹5,000.

Reiterating his previous allegations about missing women, Pawan Kalyan said that central intelligence agencies were indeed investigating the alarming number of women who have gone missing in Andhra Pradesh.