Amaravati, July 5 (IANS) Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Sunday that the police machinery under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘malicious’ rule was heading in a highly dangerous direction.

He accused the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of steering the police system in Andhra Pradesh toward a perilous path to facilitate political suppression and silence those who question him.

In a social media post on X, the YSRCP Chief told Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu that Andhra Pradesh needs is neither a regime of ‘rowdy policing’ nor ‘Jungle Raj’.

“The state requires an administration that ensures public safety and a system that delivers justice to victims. It needs a society that believes everyone is equal before the law. We need a police force that operates in accordance with the Constitution rather than acting on political directives,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that Chandrababu Naidu through the toxic precedents had sown seeds of poison across the state and these are gradually sprouting and transforming into poisonous trees.

“There is no urgency in the investigation when children go missing. There is no action taken even when complaints regarding crimes against women are filed. No arrests were made even after a tribal woman was stripped and assaulted. Yet, if the state government is questioned on social media, you resort to filing cases, making arrests, inflicting torture, and invoking non-bailable sections?” the former Chief Minister said.

He cited various incidents, including the case of little Gnaneswari from the Tuni constituency in Kakinada district who went missing a month ago, delay in registering the case of sexual assault against a mentally challenged girl in Peddapuram and a former TDP Councillor assaulting a tribal woman after stripping her naked in Nellore district.

“The case involving the custodial death of Sai Krishna and the subsequent disappearance of his body has rocked the state; you still have no answers to the questions raised by his mother. The public was deeply distressed by the suicide of Kranthi Kumar, the dying declaration he gave, and the fact that people witnessed it unfold on social media. Incidents such as the custodial deaths of Gangamma and Tirupatamma, and the suicide of Kalavathi due to police harassment, have brought great disrepute to the state’s police force. Yet, there is no check on your brazen conduct.”

The former Chief Minister accused Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of diverting public attention from these issues, by directing every Station House Officer to charge social media activists under non-bailable sections and link their cases to organised crime, rather than applying the relevant standard provisions.

“This is an extremely dangerous trend. Attempting to intimidate people because you cannot answer their questions amounts to nothing less than the murder of democracy,” Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

The YSRCP Chief said it was utterly reprehensible that KVR — a YouTube influencer and an Osmania University gold medallists in journalism — was brought from Hyderabad by a massive police force without adhering to due legal process, and was imprisoned after being implicated in an FIR for acts he never committed.

“In the case of YouTuber Raavan, even after bail was granted by four different courts, you acted with unbridled arrogance and had your associates directly attack the concerned police stations. Driven by intolerance, you levelled charges against him that are typically reserved for terrorists. Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, the very words and questions that you, Pawan Kalyan, Lokesh, and your party leaders have used in the past—and continue to use—are exactly what these individuals are now saying and questioning. By that logic, shouldn’t the same charges be levelled against you as well? Branding critics as criminals, sending your people to attack police stations with the intent to kill, and having the police remain silent spectators—these are all dangerous signs for democracy. This is an assault on constitutional rights; this is an assault on democratic values.”

–IANS

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