The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday granted sanction for the filing of a complaint in court against actor-politician Pawan Kalyan over his allegations that ward and village volunteers had a hand in the trafficking of women. Special Chief Secretary Ajay Jain issued a government order to this effect.
“The government, after careful examination of the matter and in exercise of its powers, hereby accord sanction to the concerned public prosecutor to make a complaint before the competent Court against the individual named Konidela Pawan Kalyan,” the order read.
He invoked powers conferred under Section 199 (4) (b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, to accord the sanction. Jain highlighted that Kalyan made defamatory, derogatory, and venomous statements against the volunteers in Eluru on July 9. Addressing a public meeting in Eluru, Kalyan alleged that nearly 30,000 women have been trafficked from the southern state, enabled by the state government’s grassroots governance system’s foot soldiers, namely ward and village volunteers. According to Kalyan, some anti-social elements are making use of this information to target widows and traffic or trap them.
Following these allegations, state women’s commission chairperson Vasireddy Padma recently issued a notice demanding Kalyan produce detailed evidence within 10 days.
