A day ahead of their plan to visit the Kondapalli reserve forest area to ascertain facts on the alleged illegal mining there, the police on Friday placed the TDP leaders under house arrest at their respective places.
TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu had constituted a fact-finding committee comprising Varla Ramaiah, V. Anita, K. Ravindra, B. Umamaheswara Rao, K. Narayana, N. Raghuram, N. Ramakrishna Reddy, T. Sowmya, and N. Meera.
The committee members are supposed to visit Kondapalli on Saturday.
In his reaction, Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy wondered why should the State government create hurdles when no illegal mining activity was taking place in the reserve forest area in Mylavaram constituency in Krishna district.
The government was misusing the police to place the TDP leaders under illegal house arrest with the ulterior motive of suppressing their voice against the ruling party leaders’ corrupt activities, he alleged.
“The false cases and arrests cannot prevent the TDP leaders from visiting the area on Saturday,” he said.
The fact-finding committee was constituted in the backdrop of the arrest of TDP leader Devineni Umamheswara Rao and his followers on Wednesday.
The former Minister was accused of rioting and criminal conspiracy, after his surprise visit to the reserve forest area on Tuesday led to clashes between the TDP and YSRCP activists at Gaddamanugu village.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao had alleged that the YSRCP leaders, with the support of Mylavaram MLA Vasantha Krishna Prasad, were indulging in illegal gravel mining.
