Police raid on house of Chittoor ex-mayor’s aide in ganja case leads to tension

CHITTOOR/ VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed at Obanapalli late Thursday night when police raided the house of Poorna Chandra, a follower of former Chittoor mayor and TDP leader Katari Hemalatha. Her followers stated that Hemalatha had suffered minor injuries when she was hit by a police vehicle during her attempt to resist the arrest of her follower. Police, however, denied the allegation that they ran a jeep over the former mayor. According to the police, Prasanna Kumar was arrested and 2 kg of ganja was seized from him. Based on the information furnished by him, the police raided the house Poorna Chandra at Obanapalli. 

“Prasanna told us that he hid more ganja at Obanapalli. Based on his confession, we raided the house of Poorna and seized 18 kg of ganja. While we were returning to the station along with the two accused, a group of people blocked our vehicle and forcibly took the duo away,” said Chittoor II Town Circle Inspector P Yatheendra.

Having learnt about the police raid, Hemalatha, along with her followers, reached Obanapalli and staged a protest. In a bid to stop police from arresting Poorna, they blocked the jeep’s path. Police, however, tried to speed off to avoid a law and order problem. In the process, the vehicle allegedly hit the former mayor, who reportedly suffered a minor fracture and she was immediately rushed to hospital.

“A group of people, who came all of a sudden, had blocked our vehicle and tried to take away the two accused. In a bid to prevent the accused from escaping, we tried to speed off the vehicle. By that time, the group had surrounded us completely and forcibly opened the vehicle door, and took the accused away. Our vehicle didn’t hit anyone,” asserted the CI

Earlier, she wrote a letter to ASP Jagadeesh alleging that some unknown persons were threatening Prasanna, a witness in the murder case of her in-laws Katari Anuradha and Mohan. She alleged that police were trying to implicate Prasanna and Poorna in false cases, and that was why they conducted a raid on the house hours after she wrote the letter to the ASP. The CI said they booked a case against the group of people for preventing the police from discharging their duties and taking the two accused away from their custody.