GUNTUR: A day after the death of three women in a stampede at an event organised by Vuyyuru Foundation in Guntur, police on Monday reportedly took its Managing Director Vuyyuru Srinivas into custody for questioning. Nallapadu police, who initially registered a case under Section 174 of CrPC, later added Section 304 (ii) r/w 34 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
Vuyyuru Foundation organized the distribution of NTR Janata clothes and Chandranna Sankranthi Kanuka for over 30,000 women on January 1 in Guntur with TDP Chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu as the chief guest. Soon after Naidu left the premises, as the organizers asked the women to return back to their homes without giving the kits, the women who have been waiting in queue lines for hours got restless and rushed to the counters which led to a stampede.
Three women -- G Ramadevi, Sayyad Asiya, and Shaik Bibi -- died in the stampede As many as 17 women reportedly got injured, and four women are still in critical condition. Based on Ramadevi’s son Nagaraju’s complaint, the police filed a complaint against program organizers. The police who kept vigil on the organizers found Srinivas in Vijayawada, took him into custody and shifted him to Guntur for investigation.
A political blame game continued for the second consecutive day over the incident with TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh holding the YSRC government responsible for deaths. ``The deaths at Kandukur and Guntur meetings are not due to stampede. They are a result of the YSRC government’s carnage,’’ Lokesh tweeted. He further alleged that the victims have not died in the stampede but were killed by YSRC leaders.
YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna, at an informal interaction with the media, however, blamed the organisers and TDP for the incidents. "The road at which was the incident happened was narrowed down further by erecting flexies. Also, the delay in the arrival of Naidu to the venue had led to the incident," Sajjala remarked. He added that Naidu wanted to get some political mileage by attending the event.
Meanwhile, the Guntur police said it had given conditional permission for the meeting after the TDP’s Guntur Parliament constituency president Tenali Sravan Kumar applied for the event. In the permission given for using loudspeakers, the Guntur police made it clear that the organisers should `take all necessary arrangements to construct dias which will bear the capacity of occupants and if anything happened adversely, organisers are held responsible for the lapses.’
Guntur Superintendent of Police Arif Hafeez dismissed the allegations of the TDP leaders that the state government and police department were not responsible for the tragedy and said about 200 police personnel were deployed for security.
NAIDU’S CRAZE FOR PUBLICITY COST LIVES: NANI
Vijayawada: Former minister and YSRC MLA Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani) has lashed out at TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for winding up 2022 and starting 2023 with killing innocent people. “It is Naidu’s craze for publicity that led to the killings,’’ he alleged. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Nani said the public meeting at Kandukur was organised abutting a canal on a narrow road which was further cut short by erecting banners welcoming Naidu.
TDP leader demands CBI investigation
Vijayawada: Demanding a CBI probe into the Guntur stampede that claimed three lives, TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah suspected the role of sleeper cells belonging to the ruling YSRC behind the incident. It may be noted that three women died and several were severely injured during a stampede at TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s Sankranti gift programme in Guntur on Sunday. This was the second such incident in a span of four days when people lost their lives at Naidu’s public events.