Published May 12, 2026 | 9:54 PM ⚊ Updated May 12, 2026 | 9:54 PM
Bhageerath with his father, Minister Bandi Sanjay.
Synopsis: The Telangana Police have upgraded the charges against Bandi Sai Bhageerath, son of Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, to aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the POCSO Act. The SIT probing the case has summoned Bhageerath for questioning on 13 May, while his anticipatory bail plea is pending before the High Court. Addressing a rally in Karimnagar, Bandi Sanjay said his son had denied wrongdoing, but added that “everyone is equal before the law”.
The case against Bandi Sai Bhageerath, son of Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, moved on three fronts simultaneously on Tuesday, 12 May. Investigators upgraded the charges to some of the most serious offences under the POCSO Act, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Telangana government issued a notice summoning him for questioning, and his father addressed a rally in Karimnagar where he spoke publicly as a father for the first time since the case broke.
The most significant development came from Pet Basheerabad police station, where the investigating officer altered the sections of law after recording the survivor’s statement.
The original FIR, registered on 8 May, carried charges under Sections 74 and 75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 11 read with 12 of the POCSO Act, sexual harassment offences carrying a maximum sentence of three to five years.
The charges now stand altered to Section 5(I) read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act. Invoking Section 5 revises the charges from sexual harassment to aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
Section 5(I) of POSCO refers to penetrative sexual assault causing survivors hurt or causing bodily harm and injury or injury to the sexual organs of the child.
Section 6 prescribes the punishment: a minimum of 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment, extendable to life imprisonment, meaning the remainder of the convict’s natural life, or death, along with a fine paid to the survivor for medical expenses and rehabilitation.
The upgrade matters for two reasons.
First, it reflects what the survivor told investigators when she recorded her statement, an account that apparently went significantly beyond what the original FIR captured.
Second, it dismantles the central legal argument Bhageerath’s counsel advanced in the anticipatory bail petition filed before the Telangana High Court on Monday.
That petition argued the offences carried a maximum sentence of seven years and invoked the Supreme Court’s Arnesh Kumar judgment, which holds that arrest must be the exception for such offences. Under Section 5(l) read with Section 6, that argument no longer holds. The offences now fall among the most serious in the statute, carrying sentences beginning at 20 years.
The Telangana High Court is yet to list Bhageerath’s anticipatory bail petition for hearing.
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The Telangana government formed a Special Investigation Team to handle the case. The SIT issued a notice through Bhageerath’s maternal uncle, CH Vamshi Krishna, a doctor based in Karimnagar, directing Bhageerath to appear before the investigating officer at Pet Basheerabad police station on 13 May at 2 pm.
The notice states that failure to comply may result in legal action.
Bhageerath’s anticipatory bail petition remains pending before the Telangana High Court. As summer vacation is under way in the high court, the petition has been listed before the vacation bench on 14 May.
While investigators moved against his son, Bandi Sanjay addressed a Hindu Ekta Rally in Karimnagar on Tuesday and spoke about the case publicly for the first time in personal terms.
He described a father’s anguish at watching his son portrayed as a criminal.
“Today, if that same son of mine is being portrayed in society like a criminal, just think once, as a father, how would anyone bear it?” he said.
He quoted his son’s words to him directly. “My son cried and told me, ‘I have done nothing wrong. We were friends. We did not do anything wrong. We were together and later separated. I have done nothing wrong. I will come out honestly and truthfully,'” Bandi Sanjay told the rally.
He then distanced himself from any attempt to shield his son from legal consequences. “After hearing my son say this, I am not trying to defend him. Whoever commits a mistake, even if it is my own son, everyone is equal before the law. If my son has committed a mistake, then definitely he must be punished, hundred percent. Am I not Bandi Sanjay, the person who never wanted one kind of law for my son and another kind of law for someone else?” he said.
He framed his absence as a father through years of political commitment, drawing a portrait of a man so absorbed in public life that his own household suffered. “Thinking only about you, considering you as my own people, as my own family, I could not give time to my own son. I could not even speak properly with my son,” he said.
