The New Indian Express ·
Politics
Seven BRS leaders arrested in Vijayawada in ‘Purification case’
SIDDIPET : The Police arrested seven out of 21 BRS leaders and workers who allegedly purified the surroundings of former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s farmhouse in Erravelli, Markook mandal.
The BRS leaders purified the area with turmeric water following the agitation of Dalits belonging to the Congress party against the opposition leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The police registered three cases regarding the incident and preliminarily identified 21 people as accused. In one of the three cases (the Varadarajpur case), the police identified nine individuals from the same village as accused, all of whom went absconding after switching off their mobile phones.
Taking a serious view of the incident, the government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by senior IPS officer Vijay Kumar to conduct a comprehensive inquiry and take action against the perpetrators. The SIT launched an investigation and has been conducting searches for the accused over the last six days.
The accused who fled from Varadarajpur village took shelter in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. However, when one of them switched on their mobile phone to speak with relatives, police tracked their location and, with the help of local police, arrested seven individuals on Monday. They were produced before the Gajwel court, which remanded them to 15 days of judicial custody. Following the verdict, police shifted all seven accused to the Siddipet jail. Markook Sub-Inspector MA Yusuf explained that two other accused in this case remain at large.
Meanwhile, 12 accused named in the other two cases are also still absconding. Among the seven arrested on Monday is Praveen, the former BRS sarpanch of Varadarajpur village.
