Asaduddin Owaisi granted bail in 2005 case

Zeenews Bureau

Hyderabad: An Andhra Pradesh court on Thursday granted bail to MIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi in a seven-year-old case. Asaduddin Owaisi is a Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad while his younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, who is also in jail in a hate speech case, is a member of the Andhra Pradesh state legislative assembly. Asaduddin Owaisi and other Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leaders were booked by police when they tried to prevent officials from demolishing a place of worship for expanding a road at Mutangi village in the same district. Akbar Owaisi is in judicial custody till Feb 5 in the hate speech case. He was arrested Jan 8 for making a hate speech at a public meeting at Nirmal Dec 22. He was sent to judicial custody the next day. A member of the assembly from Chandrayangutta constituency in Hyderabad, Akbar Owaisi is facing charges of sedition, waging war against the nation and criminal conspiracy. After arresting Akbar Owaisi, police had re-opened the 2005 case against the powerful Owaisi family, which dominated Hyderabad politics for over four decades. Political observers say that as the party is mainly run by the Owaisi family, the arrest of the two brothers could land the party cadre in confusion. United Muslim Action Committee, an umbrella group of Muslim organisations, has accused the Congress government of targetting Muslim leaders by re-opening old cases and slapping serious charges like sedition on them. The committee`s leader Abdul Rahim Qureshi said the government was adopting a vindictive attitude as the MIM had withdrawn its support to the state government. MIM, which has seven legislators, all from Hyderabad, had snapped its ties with the Congress in November, accusing the government of being soft towards Hindu right-wing groups. With IANS inputs