TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday slammed the State government for “ill- treating” Narsapuram MP K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju by filing a “false sedition case.”
It showed the YSRCP government’s autocratic style of functioning aimed at silencing all dissenting voices in the State, Mr. Naidu told reporters during a virtual media conference he addressed on Saturday.
‘SC observations’
“The observations of the Supreme Court during the hearings of the case against the MP are a disgrace to the State government,” Mr. Naidu said.
The Supreme Court had said it was believing that Mr. Raju was prima facie ill-treated while in the custody of the CID, he added.
“During his arrest, Mr. Raju's family members had apprehended that he might be killed overnight in the Guntur jail,” Mr. Naidu said, and appealed to the people to ponder over the “excesses being committed by the government.”
A situation had set in Andhra Pradesh wherein no institution was safe, whether it was courts or the opposition parties, or the press, or the civil society organisations, he observed.
Mr. Naidu said it was unfortunate that a senior advocate arguing for the government had stated that Mr. Raju might have inflicted injuries on his own during his transit from Guntur to the Secunderabad Army Hospital. The Supreme Court had to remind the learned counsel that Mr. Raju was in the custody of the AP Police at that time, he added.
Expressing concern over the “collapse of the rule of law” in the State, Mr. Naidu said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy seemed to be under the delusion that he could do whatever he liked, regardless of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
Parishad polls
Top courts were passing serious strictures against his government’s decisions, he said. The High Court had questioned the suitability of Ms. Nilam Sawhney for the post of the State Election Commission as she had “brazenly misinterpreted and violated the Supreme Court’s order,” he added.
More than ₹160 crore of public funds had been wasted on the conduct of the MPTC and ZPTC elections, which were now cancelled by the High Court, he said.
“Who will take responsibility for this misuse – Ms. Nilam Sawhney, or the Chief Minister, or the Ministers?” he questioned.
‘Govt. murder’
Mr. Naidu further said that the death of suspended Dr. Sudhakar of Visakhapatnam was a “government murder,” considering how he had been “victimised, targeted, arrested, beaten up, branded as insane, and not given salary till his last breath.”
Mr. Naidu also criticised the YSRCP government for “mishandling the Anandaiah herbal preparation” for COVID-19 at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district.
The government should have commissioned a study by the scientists of the AYUSH Department and ICMR. Instead, it had file a case against Mr. Anandaiah in haste, he said.
