HYDERABAD: BRS leader and former MLA Patnam Narender Reddy, who was named as A-1 in the Lagcherla attack case, has confessed to the police to having committed the offence (the attack on Vikarabad collector Prateek Jain and his team) with a criminal conspiracy in order to defame and destabilise the government to derive political mileage, as directed by their leader KT Rama Rao, the BRS working president, according to the remand report accessed by TNIE.
Narender Reddy, who unsuccessfully contested against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for the Kodangal Assembly seat in 2023, was arrested by the police on Wednesday morning from his residence in Filmnagar in Hyderabad and taken to Pargi police station. His arrest was based on 48 calls he made or received from BRS activist B Suresh, one of the other accused, who is absconding.
Meanwhile, BRS leaders said that Suresh never attacked the collector and claimed that he only interacted with the official as seven acres belonging to him were proposed to be acquired for the pharma unit.
However, top police officials reportedly submitted a report to the government stating that Suresh and his brother do not own any land in the village. The report also said that outsiders were involved in the attack on the officials.
IGP Multi Zone-II V Satyanarayana said that among the 42 suspects identified by the police for the attack, 19 do not own any land in the village.
It may be recalled that the villagers in Lagcherla attacked Jain and other officials with sticks, stones and also chilli powder when they went to the village to conduct a public hearing on the proposed pharma unit.
The police arrested five more persons on Wednesday in connection with the case, taking the total number of people arrested so far to 21. Based on the confessional statements of the accused arrested on Tuesday, the police arrested Narender Reddy.
Narender Reddy now named A-1 in case
The police initially named Suresh as A-1 in the case but on Wednesday made Narender Reddy the prime accused and named Suresh as A-2. The police, citing the confessional statements, said that there was a ‘criminal conspiracy’ to kill government officials in Lagcherla village of Dudyal mandal on November 11. The remand report also mentions that the conspiracy was purportedly hatched “to gain political mileage and defame the government of Telangana as per the directions of the prominent leaders of the party KTR (BRS working president) and others”.
Further, Narender Reddy is said to have confessed that he frequently contacted Suresh (A2) to assess the execution of their acts. As per the Call Detail Records (CDR) accessed by the police, Narender Reddy and Suresh communicated with each other over phone for a total of 84 times since September 1. The duo also reportedly spoke to each other on November 11, the day of the attack.
Some of the accused also confessed that Narender Reddy had provided them with the paraphernalia as well as financial and moral support through Suresh.
Initially, the case was registered against 55 persons. On Tuesday, 16 of the accused persons were remanded. On Wednesday, five others, including Narender Reddy, were arrested by the police and sent to sub-jail in Parigi for judicial custody.