The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday granted interim relief to former chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in a case stemming from the death of a supporter who was reportedly run over during the YSR Congress Party leader’s Rentapalla tour rally in Guntur district. The court, which is hearing Reddy’s petition to quash the proceedings, adjourned the matter to Tuesday and directed the state police not to take any coercive steps against him in the meantime. During the proceedings the bench observed that accidents can occur even at large, well-managed events such as the Kumbh Mela. In Karnataka, Justice S. R. Krishna Kumar of the state’s High Court quashed two hate-speech first information reports filed against former chief minister and current Lok Sabha MP Basavaraj Bommai. The judge said Bommai’s November 2024 remarks about Waqf properties during a protest lacked the ingredients to invoke charges of promoting enmity between groups, and that allowing the cases to proceed would amount to an abuse of process. The same court, in a separate interim order, instructed police not to arrest or otherwise act against former BJP parliamentarian Ananth Kumar Hegde while it considers his plea in an alleged road-rage case. Hegde has been booked after a complaint arising from a highway incident earlier this month. Legal scrutiny of political figures continued elsewhere in the south. BJP MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy appeared before a special investigation team in Hyderabad as a witness in the Telangana phone-tapping probe, while Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy reiterated his demand that the state government hand the inquiry over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, questioning the impartiality of local police.