The Telangana High Court will take a final call on Friday on the pre-bail request of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s son Sai Bageerath in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against him. 

After hearing arguments in the criminal petition filed by Bageerath on Thursday, Justice T. Madhavi Devi of the HC vacation bench adjourned the hearing of the anticipatory bail for one week. The contentions of the senior counsel S. Niranjan Reddy centred around granting interim protection from police arresting his client Bageerath in the POCSO case before the bench decided upon the anticipatory bail prayer. 

He contended there was no bar on granting anticipatory bail in POCSO cases, unlike the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act cases. “But I am making an argument only for interim protection till my anticipatory bail is to be considered,” the senior counsel said. According to him, the anticipatory bail plea would become infructuous if he was not granted interim protection in the backdrop of police planning his arrest. 

As the senior counsel insisted for interim protection, the judge raised several queries including if he had any evidence to prove the victim was not a minor and what were the circumstances compelling the court to grant pre-arrest bail. “How is your client different?,” to be granted interim protection, the judge said seeking to know how Bageerath was “different since same courtesies were not being extended to other accused and what was the urgency?” 

As per the complaint lodged by the victim’s mother, the alleged relationship between the victim and the accused started in June last year and the alleged offences were committed in October and November last year, the senior counsel said. Last offence was said to have been committed on December 31 of 2025 but the complaint was lodged on this May 8, more than four months after the crime was committed, he maintained. 

Before and after the alleged offences were committed, “there is a bunch of communication between the victim and the accused which were very cordial,” he said. There were telephone calls of eight hours and ten hours during that period between them, the senior counsel stating that he did not want to vilify anyone. 

Advocate Pappu Nageshwar Rao, engaged by the mother of the victim in the POCSO case, said the police reportedly recorded the statement of the victim under section 183 of BNSS on Thursday. The victim explained lot of details which could not be mentioned in the initial complaint resulting in the First Information Report. The victim’s statement had the potential to attract Section 5 of the POCSO Act which invites punishment of imprisonment of 20 years, the lawyer said. “The interim protection is as good as anticipatory bail,” he observed.