TDP Polit Bureau member Varla Ramaiah has complained to Chief Electoral Officer M.K. Meena that the Commissioner of Police (CP) of Vijayawada has created a “new narrative” to implicate Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, TDP candidate in Vijayawada Central Assembly constituency, in the case of stone-pelting at Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and arrest him illegally.
In a letter to the CEO on Saturday, Mr. Ramaiah stated that the CP had weaponised the police machinery to harass and arrest the opponents of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
He pointed out that Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy had conducted a roadshow for about 10 hours on the National Highway and busy streets of Vijayawada, during which some miscreants threw a stone at him in Ajitsingh Nagar causing him a minor injury.
On this pretext, Mr. Ramaiah alleged, the Vijayawada police had unleashed a reign of terror in the surroundings. During the course of investigation, the police took TDP BC Cell secretary Vemula Durga Rao and 20 others into custody. The police were trying to extract a statement from the suspects through coercion in order to implicate Mr. Umamaheswara Rao in the case as per the YSRCP’s agenda, he alleged.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) should intervene to ensure that the police did not harass the candidates, Mr. Ramaiah stated, appealing to it to obtain independent reports from special police observers / election observers, or by sending a special ECI team drawn from outside the State to examine the functioning of the police with specific reference to the office of the Vijayawada CP.
