Justice Raghunandan Rao of Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday passed a direction instructing National Investigation Agency (NIA) not to take coercive steps against lawyer V. Raghunath practising at Telangana High Court.
Recently, NIA searched the house of Mr. Raghunath, who is also Telangana Civil Liberties Committee State vice-president, in Dilsukhnagar here on suspicion that he had links with Maoist. The officials issued notices to the lawyer on completion of searches having seized some material from his house.
Meanwhile, Mr. Raghunath filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings initiated against him by the NIA officials.
The court passed direction not to take any coercive steps against the lawyer till further orders.
