KURNOOL: Security has been further tightened in Kurnool town with the followers of Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy still staying put at Viswabharathi Superspciality Hospital following reports that the CBI may arrest the MP anytime in the former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case. The situation continued to be tense throughout the day.
Additional forces were rushed to the town on Tuesday. CBI officials held talks with Kurnool police and Armed Reserve police officials, giving rise to speculation that the investigation agency may take the MP into custody.
Meanwhile, another team of CBI officials had reportedly gone around Kurnool to get first hand information about the town if they need to shift the MP to Hyderabad. Later in the night, one CBI team returned to Hyderabad to apprise their higher-ups of the situation in Kurnool, sources said.
Kurnool police deployed about 200 personnel drawn from Adoni and nearby areas at the hospital to strengthen security.
Apart from this, YSRC MLAs Katasani Rambhupal Reddy, Hafeez Khan and J Sudhakar, former MLA SV Mohan Reddy, Kurnool Mayor BY Ramaiah and a huge number of party workers from both Kurnool and Kadapa districts arrived at the hospital and staged protests again and again demanding that the CBI should not take any action against their leader in view of his mother’s health condition.
They raised slogans like ‘We request CBI to give time to MP’, ‘We respect CBI’, “We cooperate with CBI’ and ‘CBI, please understand mother’s love, think with humanity’.
Meanwhile, with strict police restrictions, the area at Viswabharathi Hospital in Gayatri Estate looked akin to a curfew zone. Patients and their attendants of other hospitals in the area suffered due to restrictions imposed by police to thwart any untoward incident.