Superintendent of Police A.V. Ranganath condemned the statements made by YSRCP Rajya Sabha member V. Vijayasai Reddy, for attributing closeness to former AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Telugu Desam Party, in the backdrop of Nalgonda police’s ‘Operation Ganja in AOB’ last fortnight.
“Also, that Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka police departments raided the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) region at my call deserves laughter. The issue of ganja exploitation in AOB has been for nearly 15 years,” Mr. Ranganath said in an elaborate rebuttal statement on Thursday.
The SP, outlining the sequence of events for Nalgonda police’s 17-team operation in Andhra Pradesh, said the State police was only following the instructions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to make Telangana, and Nalgonda in particular, ganja-free.
Nalgonda, which is geographically located between Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh, with the NH-65 running across, has been a potential source of ganja smugglers. He said 35 cases have been booked in related violations and by tracking networks and call data of the accused, the origin of ganja smuggling was traced to AOB.
He said that the Operation was well in the knowledge of senior police officers of the AOB districts and added that Nalgonda officers had even escaped one attack by smugglers at Lambasingi on October 17, by firing in self-defence.
Mr. Ranganath opined that Mr. Reddy’s statements were short on facts. In the wake of the political atmosphere in Andhra Pradesh, with reference to ganja abuse and exploitation, he said political parties and their leaders should not shoot the gun off the shoulders of police.
