Nagarjuna official gets jail

Hyderabad, Aug. 3: The AP High Court on Friday sentenced K.S. Raju, promoter-director of Nagarjuna Finance Limited, to six months imprisonment for contempt of court. Justice Anand Reddy pronounced the judgment and directed that Raju undergo six months of civil imprisonment and pay Rs 2,000 as fine for wilfully disobeying the orders of the court. The court directed that he should bear all expenses including the cost of food while serving the term. The sentence came on a contempt petition filed by one Edupuganti Bapanaiah of Kolluru village in Guntur district against Mr Raju and Mr N. Selvaraj, president of Nagarjuna Finance Limited and Nagarjuna Finance limited. Mr Bapanaiah stated that the respondents had disobeyed orders passed by the Company Law Board, Chennai, on February 29, 2000, and had committed breach of affidavit filed in the AP High Court in April 2001. Based on the petition, the court passed orders twice and served a contempt notice asking the respondent to appear before the court. Raju failed to appear before the court on July 13 and his counsel filed an affidavit on August 1 to condone his absence. However, the court passed the orders sentencing Raju to imprisonment and gave him two weeks to make an appeal. 3 member Kolleru team The AP High Court appointed a three-member advocate commission to inspect the Kolleru lake restoration works. A division bench comprising Chief Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy passed the orders responding to a letter on the restoration works in the lake after the SC guidelines. Check schoolbus overload The AP High Court on Friday directed joint commissioner of transport C.L.N. Gandhi to conduct surprise checks to check overloading of schoolbuses in twin cities and to implement SC guidelines for the maintenance of schoolbuses. A division bench directed Mr Gandhi to ensure that news of the surprise checks did not leak out and asked for a report within two weeks.