AP ex-minister held for comments on CM, Roja

Visakhapatnam: Former minister and senior TD leader Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy was arrested by the Guntur police at his Vennelapalem residence in Anakapalli district amidst high drama that lasted over 18 hours on Monday. He was arrested on charges of making disrespectful comments against Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and minister for tourism R.K. Roja.

Two complaints were lodged against him in Guntur district – one for making comments against the Chief Minister at Arundelpet police station and the other for commenting on minister Roja with the complaint  lodged by YSRC activist Badi Kalyani at Nagarampalem police station. The complaints were registered on September 30 and October 1, respectively.

The drama unfolded when Guntur police with over 100 personnel came to the TD leader's residence around Sunday midnight. They wanted to serve a notice under Section 41(A) but the he locked the house from inside and did not respond to the knocks by the police.

Meanwhile, hundreds of TD workers reached the former minister’s house and entered into a heated argument with the police. At a moment, there was a scuffle between the police and TD workers but it subsided later.

Later, former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Visakhapatnam West MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu reached the spot but police allowed only Ganta Srinivasa Rao and prevented the MLA.

The drama continued until the police entered the house at about 6 pm by breaking open the door. A private ambulance was summoned by the family members but it was not allowed by the police, who bundled Murthy into the police van and shifted him to Guntur. On the way, he was taken to the government hospital at Anakapalli to conduct a medical test.

TD national general-secretary Nara Lokesh phoned Murthy and told him to continue his fight, to which he responded positively.

Condemning the arrest, Ganta Srinvasa Rao said no case was made against minister R.K. Roja for making comments against Naidu’s wife Bhuvaneswari in the House of Assembly.

In the Roja case, the police registered a case under Section 135(A), 324(B) and Section 67 of the IT Act while in the case of comments against the Chief Minister, the police registered a case under Section 41 (a), 41 (b) 153 (a), 234, 504 and 505, he said.

Earlier, Murthy’s wife lodged a complaint with the Pawaravada police alleging that her husband was illegally confined to the house by Guntur police.