Veteran Telugu actor Mohan Babu and his son Manchu Vishnu, have been given a huge legal boost, as the Supreme Court has officially dismissed the pending case against them for conducting a protest in 2019.
The incident occurred on March 22, 2019, when Mohan Babu and Vishnu organized a rally at Tirupati for the payment of fee reimbursement arrears to students. The protest, involving staff and students of their institutions, is said to have obstructed traffic and caused trouble to the public. Alleging a breach of the Model Code of Conduct during the election process, the local police filed an FIR against them.
Andhra Pradesh was then being ruled by the TDP government. The case later lost steam when, during the same year, the YSRCP took over government in power—a party backed by Mohan Babu and Vishnu. The case was, however, revived and started moving ahead again during the last few months.
Mohan Babu and Manchu Vishnu, believing the claims were politically motivated and legally nonsensical, approached the High Court contending that the election code did not apply to their case. Unfortunately, the petition to quash the case was rejected, compelling them to appeal to the Supreme Court.
In view of FIR and charge sheet examined carefully, the Supreme Court observed that the sections mentioned in the FIR and charges were not even applicable considering the nature of protest. In fact, the Supreme Court also noted that there was no concrete evidence causing the protest to be unlawful or to find that any harm was caused to the public.
In its verdict, the Supreme Court quashed both the FIR registered at the Chandragiri Police Station and the correlative charge sheet, granting the Manchu family complete legal relief. The decision puts an end to a long-drawn-out six-year-long legal battle and is also a moment of vindication for Mohan Babu and Manchu Vishnu.