Telangana HC grants bail to Bandi Bageerath in POCSO case

The bail was granted on a surety of Rs 1 lakh with certain conditions.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday, July 9, granted bail to Bandi Bageerath in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case.

The bail was granted on two sureties of Rs 1 lakh with certain conditions. It also directed the 25-year-old not to interfere with the investigation or influence witnesses.

Earlier, Public Prosecutor Palle Nageshwara Rao had opposed the granting of bail to the accused and argued that he may influence the witnesses and tamper with evidence, if released on bail.

The police are going to file a chargesheet, he further submitted.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that Bageerath had been in judicial custody for more than 40 days and sought for granting bail.

Bageerath, son of Union Minister and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar, is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl on two separate occasions at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

On May 8, based on the survivor’s mother’s complaint, the Pet Basheerabad Police registered a case under sections 74 (assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 75 (sexual harassment) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 11 (acts committed with sexual intent, such as passing sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, making inappropriate gestures or digital stalking) and 12 (sexual harassment of a child) of POCSO Act.

Bageerath has maintained that he is innocent and the case is a political vendetta against his father. In his complaint filed at the Two Town Police Station in Karimnagar, he claimed he met the girl through common friends and that the two developed a friendly relationship over time.

He alleged that the girl’s parents pressured him to marry her and, when he refused, threatened to file criminal cases against him. He said he paid the girl’s father Rs 50,000 on one occasion, after which the family escalated their demand to Rs 5 crore, with the girl’s mother allegedly threatening suicide if the amount was not paid.

He further stated that the survivor was not a minor, as she claims to be. 

Bageerath surrendered before the police on May 16 and was lodged at the Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad. His legal team consistently applied for bail. On June 20, a Special POCSO Court at Malkajgiri granted him interim bail to appear in his BBA supplementary examinations at Mahindra University. He returned to jail but continued applying for regular bail, which was granted on Thursday.

On July 3, during one of the bail hearings, the Telangana Police told the High Court that investigations have revealed that Bageerath had struck a relationship with the minor, emotionally manipulated her and sexually abused her several times ever since 2025. They statedsaid that the crimes were committed at various places, such as Sriram Gardens near the house of the victim and Golf Edge Apartments at Nanakramguda.

Police said that educational records have established the age of the victim as 17 years.