PRESSBUREAU
Hyderabad: In 2025, a former corporator from Hyderabad, a woman Congress leader, lodged a private complaint before a metropolitan magistrate’s court against seven party functionaries, including Meenakshi Natarajan. She alleged that these leaders had not acted on her representation seeking measures against another party leader who had allegedly sexually harassed her and issued threats to her life.
The corporator, who represented Tarnaka between 2002 and 2007, had previously been associated with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), where she served as joint secretary from 2007 to 2010. In her complaint, she also claimed that Congress leader – Kumbham Shiva Kumar Reddy, of Kumarpet – had at one point attempted to have her house in Tarnaka set ablaze.
The court issued summons in the matter and directed all those named in the corporator’s complaint to appear before it. Consequently, Natarajan and the other Congress leaders named by the corporator submitted counter affidavits. Natarajan’s affidavit, drafted by her legal team, was filed before the court in October last year, stating that her inclusion in the case was driven by mala fide intentions.
It is this proceeding that Natarajan reportedly did not disclose in her election affidavit submitted to the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh, leading to the rejection of her nomination.
Natarajan, serving as the All India Congress Committee’s in-charge for Telangana, was respondent number four in the corporator’s complaint. The remaining respondents included Kumbham Shiva Kumar Reddy; his niece Chittem Parnika Reddy, a Congress MLA from Narayanpet; B. Mahesh Kumar Reddy, president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee; Vakiti Srihari, the Animal Husbandry and Sports Minister, also from Narayanpet; K. Prashant Reddy, president of the Narayanpet District Congress Committee; and Chittem Abhijay Reddy, a Congress leader and nephew of Shiva Kumar Reddy.
Shiva Kumar Reddy faces criminal allegations, including one case registered at Panjagutta police station in Hyderabad on May 7, 2022, and another at Cubbon police station in Bengaluru on June 28, 2023. In both instances, the former woman corporator is the complainant.
Two years after filing those complaints, on August 28, 2025, the woman approached the Fourth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Hyderabad with a private complaint seeking action against the seven leaders, including Natarajan. She alleged that they had protected Shiva Kumar Reddy.
Srihari assumed the position of District Congress Committee president in Narayanpet after the woman staged a dharna outside Panjagutta police station, where the case against Shiva Kumar Reddy had been registered.
The former woman corporator, who has sought compensation of Rs 10 crore for the trauma she claims to have suffered, alleged in her petition that the Congress leadership failed to proceed against Shiva Kumar Reddy despite repeated appeals.
According to her, when she met Natarajan, she was informed that the party had suspended Shiva Kumar Reddy, yet no documentary proof was provided. She further alleged that he was appointed as the Congress counting agent during assembly and parliamentary elections even after a court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea. He also shared a platform with MLA Parnika Reddy at an event distributing cheques to farmers, which she said was later brought to the notice of Deepadas Munshi, Natarajan’s predecessor as Congress in-charge of Telangana.
The woman further stated that Munshi called both Parnika Reddy and Shiva Kumar Reddy to the party office in Hyderabad to address the dispute in the presence of State Congress president Mahesh Kumar Goud. Srihari, who was then district Congress president, was also consulted.
Subsequently, she urged the court to take cognisance of the matter against all respondents and direct them to pay her Rs 10 crore in compensation. The court summoned Natarajan and the others, all of whom responded by submitting affidavits. However, when Natarajan allegedly omitted this matter from her election affidavit, the Congress expected her to secure victory as the party possessed the required numbers.
She stated that she had submitted representations to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka seeking the arrest of Shiva Kumar Reddy after he allegedly threatened her life, but claimed his political influence shielded him. She also alleged that she was pressured and threatened to withdraw the court case. Meanwhile, a protection order previously granted to her by a Bengaluru court expired.
In her response to the court summons, Natarajan contended that the woman had filed the case against her and the other respondents with mala fide motives. She stated that she had neither met nor interacted with Shiva Kumar Reddy in any personal capacity and that no specific criminal conduct had been attributed to her. She requested dismissal of the case against her, arguing that she could not be held responsible for the alleged actions of Shiva Kumar Reddy.
The Congress party and Natarajan have challenged the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh, where the party was considered to have a strong prospect of winning the seat.