VIJAYAWADA : Five days after Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was attacked with a stone at Daba Kottu Centre in Ajith Singh Nagar, Vijayawada city police arrested the prime accused and produced him before a local court on Thursday.
The accused, identified as Vemula Satish Kumar, is a resident of Vaddera Colony. Principal junior civil court-cum-metropolitan magistrate court judge C Ramana Reddy remanded Satish to 14 days in judicial custody. The 19-year-old was shifted to Nellore district prison.
According to police, the teenager threw a sharp-edged concrete stone at the YSRC president when the latter’s cavalcade reached Vivekananda School on April 13. In the remand report, police said Satish resorted to the attack with an intention to kill or cause harm to Jagan.
According to the remand report submitted to the court, a case has been registered in the Ajith Singh Nagar police station on April 14 under Section 307 (attempt to murder) after Vijayawada West MLA and YSRC’s candidate for Vijayawada Central constituency Velampalli Srinivasa Rao lodged a complaint. In the incident, Velampalli also sustained an injury to his left eye. Based on the investigation carried out by the police and the Special Investigation Team (SIT), a few more IPC Sections, including 120(B) and 107(2), were added to the FIR.
The police submitted to the court that Satish attended Jagan’s roadshow along with his friends on April 13 around 7 pm. He was carrying a stone that he picked up from the Singh Nagar bridge. When Jagan’s caravan reached Vivekananda School junction, the accused joined the scores of people who had gathered there to greet the Chief Minister. Satish then threw the stone at Jagan with full force.
“As a result, Jagan and Velampalli Srinivasa Rao were injured. This is an act of target to kill or cause harm to Jagan,” said public prosecutor Krishna Kishore, on behalf of Vijayawada police.
CCTV camera footage, call data dump helped police nab accused
The police also mentioned the role of second accused, Durga Rao, in instigating Satish to commit the offence. It has been learnt that Durga Rao, A2 in the case, has been actively participating in the Opposition TDP’s election activities. He is reportedly also a close aide of former MLA Bonda Umamaheshwara Rao.
Asked how Satish was traced, a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity told TNIE that advanced technology, statements of locals and clues from eyewitnesses led the investigators to the accused. “Digital evidence such as CCTV camera footage and traces of call data dump also helped in the arrest of the accused. Satish was arrested from KGF apartment in New RR Pet. The same was informed to his family members. The case is still under investigation. More information on the role of other persons and their motive behind the attack needs to be collected,” the police officer explained.
Political slugfest escalates
Criticising the Opposition leaders for terming the incident a drama, YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy sought to know, if it was even possible to fake an attack with a stone thrown from such a distance?
Further, he added that TDP leader Bonda Uma cannot claim that he is falsely being implicated in the case. “The role of Uma or even a more senior leader will be known during the course of the investigation,” he said.
TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah questioned how could YSRC leaders have known that Jagan was attacked by a stone beforehand.
Varla alleged that minors were being taken into custody and were subjected to torture. Holding the Police Commissioner accountable for the incident, he asked why was the Chief Minister allowed to stand on his vehicle when there was no electricity in the area? “How did the security allow this? The police commissioner should answer for this,” he demanded.