VIJAYAWADA: Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas alleged that a conspiracy was hatched by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) under the previous YSRCP regime to register a case and arrest actress and model Kadambari Jathwani.
He presented his arguments in the High Court on Friday during a hearing on the anticipatory bail pleas filed by IPS officers Kanti Rana Tata, Vishal Gunni, police officers Hanumantha Rao and Satyanarayana, and advocate I Venkateswaralu in the case pertaining to the alleged harassment of Kadambari Jathwani.
The AG stated that higher officials in the police department had plotted to implicate Jathwani, even before businessman Kukkala Vidyasagar had registered a case against her. Dammalapati argued that IPS officer Vishal Gunni, who was transferred from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam, was sent to Mumbai to supervise the Jathwani case. As evident by Gunni’s testimony before the disciplinary committee, the then Vijayawada Commissioner of Police (CP) Kanthi Rana Tata informed him that he will be relieved once he returns from Mumbai, he pointed out.
Custodial investigation of petitioners needed: AG
Elaborating on case details, he said Vidyasagar lodged a complaint with the police in the early hours of February 2, 2024, stating that Jathwani had tried to sell his land with forged documents. The case was registered at 6 am on the same date. “One day before the complaint was lodged, Kanthi Rana Tata ordered his camp clerk to book tickets to Mumbai. By the time the case was registered, Vishal Gunni and other police officials were already at the Gannavaram airport to leave for Mumbai. Preliminary evidence is there to prove that the petitioners have conspired to implicate Jathwani in the case,” he argued.
Noting that the petitioners could not be taken into custody for inquiry due to the interim stay orders, the AG said they might influence witnesses if they are granted anticipatory bail at such a crucial phase of the investigation.
Requesting the court to dismiss the anticipatory bail pleas, Dammalapati argued, “Custodial investigation of the petitioners is necessary to understand who created fake documents, who is behind the police registering the case against Jathwani and to identify who else is involved in the issue.”
Jathwani’s counsels -- advocates Vasireddy Prabhunath and Narra Srinivas Rao -- remarked that the State has never seen such a case, where police officials from the constable to the DG level were involved. They alleged that the then DG (Intelligence) Seetha Ramanjaneyulu played a vital role in registering the case against the actress and that it was his oral orders that set the ball rolling.
The court adjourned the case and posted it to December 19.