VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress Party President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday alleged that there is a total breakdown of law and order in the state and the arrest of his party leader and former MLA Vallabhneni Vamsi "in a false case is proof of this".
Jagan Mohan Reddy met Vamsi in Vijayawada sub-jail where he was lodged in a kidnapping and SC/ST Act case.
The YSRCP President told media persons after meeting Vamsi that the TDP-led coalition government has cooked up false charges against the former MLA in the case as he alleged that there is a total breakdown of law and order in the state under the present ruling dispensation.
Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that false cases were foisted against Vamsi. He claimed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu through TDP leader Pattabhi insulted Vamsi and provoked him which led to the attack on TDP’s Gannavaram office.
He said Vamsi’s name was nowhere mentioned in the case that was registered in connection with the attack but after the TDP-led coalition came to power, the case was reopened. He claimed that since Satyavardhan, an employee in the TDP office, gave a statement that Vamsi was not involved in the attack, the government out of political vendetta booked a false case of kidnapping and threatening Satyavardhan.
Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that false cases were booked against at least 44 YSRCP leaders since the coalition government came to power in June last year.
Tight security arrangements were made during Jagan’s visit to the sub-jail. Police had imposed prohibitory orders around the sub-jail complex to maintain peace.
A large number of YSRCP leaders, workers, and supporters had gathered near the sub-jail during the former Chief Minister’s visit.
Andhra Pradesh Police arrested Vamsi from his residence in Hyderabad on February 13. The next day a court in Vijayawada sent him and his followers Shivarama Krishna Prasad and Lakshmipathy to judicial custody for 14 days.
Vamsi was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and threatening the complainant Satyavardhan, a computer operator in the TDP office at Gannavaram, who is the complainant in the TDP office attack case that occurred in February 2023.
Vamsi and his followers, allegedly involved in the TDP office attack case, kidnapped Satyavardhan and threatened him to withdraw the case.
A case under Bharat Nyaya Sanhita's (BNS) sections 140 (1) (kidnap), 308, 351 (3) (criminal intimidation) and under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was booked against Vamsi and others.
Vamsi defected from the TDP to the YSRCP in 2020 and has since been a bitter critic of the TDP and its chief Chandrababu Naidu.