VISAKHAPATNAM/VIJAYAWADA: Slueths of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) early on Thursday arrested TDP politburo member and former minister Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu and son Rajesh from their residence at Narsipatnam in Anakapalle district for allegedly submitting forged documents to construct a wall on encroached land.
Cases have been filed under non-bailable IPC Sections 464, 467, 471, 474 read with 120 B and 34. In the FIR, Ayyanna was marked as the first accused (A1), while his sons—Vijay and Rajesh—as A2 and A3, respectively.
Later in the evening, a local court in Vizag refused to remand Ayyanna and Rajesh to custody.
The FIR was filed reportedly after irrigation executive engineer K Mallikarjuna Rao had lodged a complaint on September 30 stating that the accused submitted a fake No Objection Certificate (NOC), purportedly issued by him to claim legal rights over the encroached land.
CID DIG Sunil Kumar Naik said they had received a complaint from executive engineer of Polavaram Irrigation Project Head works (division-III) K Mallikarjuna Rao stating that Vijay and Rajesh had forged his signature with fake stamps on the NOC. They forced assistant executive engineer R Ramana Patrudu to attest the document to construct a residential building on 0.26 cents at Sivapuram in Narsipatnam municipality, that is partially under green buffer zone.
“When the issue came to Rao’s notice, he immediately verified with the executive engineer of the water resource department and was shocked to see the forged documents. Besides, no reports regarding field verification and survey were attached to the file. The accused used duplicate stamp on the NOC, which were not being used by the office during Rao’s tenure,” the complaint read.
Based on preliminary investigation, the CID registered a case against Ayyanna, his sons and others under IPC Sections 464 (making of a false document in the name of a fictitious person), 467 (Forgery of valuable security) and 474 read with 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy).“As there is no file submitted by the accused requesting permission for the construction, the crime is proved,” Sunil Naik said.
After the arrest, Ayyanna and Rajesh were brought to CID regional office in Visakhapatnam and later taken to a primary health centre at Simhachalam for medical examination. When the accused were produced before the court for remand, it asked the investigating agency to serve notice under Section 41 (A) of CrPC before proceeding further and did not remand them to custody.
In the morning, tension prevailed at Ayyanna’s house as a large contingent of policemen surrounded his house even as TDP workers and followers gathered to resist the arrests. The CID police issued notice to Ayyanna before arresting him.
Ayyana’s wife, Padmavathi questioned the arrest in the middle of the night and said she feared a threat to the lives of her husband and son. “If anything happens to them, the police should be held responsible,” she said and alleged that they were forcibly and illegally taken into custody.
Criticising police action, Padmavathi said, “They did not even tell us where they were taking my husband and son. They did not allow him (Ayyanna) to change his clothes or wear chappals.”
She further accused the YSRC government of harassing her family for the past three years.
Following the arrest, the TDP gave a bandh call in protest against the arrest of the party politburo member and his son.Schools, shops and banks remained closed. A large number of people, including women, thronged Ayyanna’s house to extend solidarity with his family.
In Visakhapatnam, the police took TDP district president Palla Srinivasa Rao, MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu and others into preventive custody when they headed to the CID office at Arilova to meet Ayyanna.
Responding to TDP’s allegations regarding ‘illegal’ arrest of their leader, the CID DIG clarified that the police have a right to use force under CrPC Section 47, if someone is not cooperating for the arrest. “We have not violated the law,” Naik maintained.