HC stays cheating case against Puducherry minister

The Madras High Court today stayed till February 24 further proceedings in a "cheating and misappropriation" case pending against Puducherry minister Malladi Krishna Rao in a lower court.
Justice M S Ramesh granted the stay on a petition by Rao seeking to quash the proceedings pending before the judicial magistrate court in Yanam, an enclave of the union territory of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh.
The case arose out of a private complaint filed in the magistrate court by Kodumuri Hari Kusuma Kumar of Yanam, from where Rao has been elected to the Puducherry assembly.
The complainant has alleged that Rao had obtained 1,600 sq metre of government land in Yanam on lease to run a old age home in 1998 but allegedly constructed a building in violation of lease conditions and also sub-let part of the premises to an educational society in 2005.

Rao had received Rs 2.16 lakh as rent during 2005-08 when he was a minister and misappropriated the amount for his own use and thus committed offences of criminal breach of trust and cheating, he had alleged.
Counsel for Rao contended that the complaint was neither maintainable in law nor on facts and it was an abuse of process of law.
Claiming that the Magistrate had erred in taking the complaint on file, he sought to quash the proceedings.