Hyderabad, May 18 (IANS) Acting on the directions of a city court, police Wednesday booked members of the government-appointed Srikrishna committee on Telangana issue for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups of people.

 
 Criminal cases under various sections were booked at Punjagutta police station against former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna and four other members of the panel.
 
 The cases were booked under under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of  religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.), 418 (Cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to person whose interest offender is bound to protect), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (publishing or circulating statements of rumours).
 
 The other members of the committee are V.K. Duggal, former union home secretary, Ravinder Kaur, former professor at IIT, Delhi, Abusaleh Sharif, senior research fellow of International Food Policy Research Institute at its New Delhi office and Dr. Ranbir Singh,  Vice-Chancellor - National Law University.
 
 The XIV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court had last month directed police to investigate into allegations against members of the panel that they had surpassed the terms of reference of the committee while preparing its report.
 
 The court's direction came on a petition filed by the Telangana People's Forum general secretary Vali-ur-Rahman.
 
 The complainant maintained that the contents of eighth chapter of the panel's report had hurt the sentiments of two communities as "the report said that formation of Telangana State may promote enmity between Hindus and Muslims and lead to communal violence in the region".
 
 The five-member panel headed by Srikrishna was formed by the centre to go into the demands for and against separate statehood to Telangana region.
 
 The panel submitted its report to the centre in December last year. It, however, did not make public the eighth chapter of the report, dealing with the law and order problem in the event of formation of separate Telangana state.
 
 Andhra Pradesh High Court, while dealing with a petition, had directed the government in March to make the chapter public.