YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday said that the alleged custodial death of Gade Sai Krishna was not an isolated atrocity but the outcome of a dangerous culture fostered under the TDP-led coalition government.
Over the past few days, Andhra Pradesh has been shaken by the alleged “disappearance” of Krishna, whose mother accused Vijayawada’s Krishna Lanka police inspector Nagaraju of torturing her son to death and then clandestinely cremating his body without the knowledge of family members.
“Be it custodial death of Gade Sai Krishna, whose body was allegedly cremated secretly by the police or the suicide of Kranti Kumar after accusing police harassment in a selfie video. They are the outcome of a dangerous culture fostered under the TDP,” Jagan said in a post on ‘X’.
Kumar (Perupogu Kranthi Kumar), a Dalit man from Vijayawada, had accused Nagaraju of driving him to suicide through his alleged harassment and torture.
In the selfie video, Kumar was seen consuming poison and ending his life due to Nagaraju’s harassment on May 21. The video went viral in the wake of Krishna’s case also being linked to Nagaraju.
Observing that incidents pertaining to Krishna and Kumar were not isolated, the opposition leader highlighted that “fear, not justice, was becoming the defining feature of policing in the state.”
Jagan claimed that encouraging political vendetta through police harassment would allow the police to take the law into their own hands, corrupt institutions and embolden sections of the police force to operate beyond established laws, rules and constitutional safeguards.
“That warning has become a painful reality. Political opponents were targeted first. Social media activists followed. Journalists, intellectuals and dissenting voices came next,” the YSRCP chief said.
What began as political persecution has now evolved into a dangerous habit of unchecked policing, where ordinary people too are becoming victims of intimidation, harassment and abuse of authority, he claimed.
Underscoring that Krishna’s case has shaken the conscience of Andhra Pradesh, Jagan said his grieving mother, Gade Vijaya Lakshmi, is still pleading for answers and asking authorities to hand over even her “son’s ashes if his body cannot be produced.”
Has such a horrifying situation ever occurred in the state’s history, asked Jagan, underlining that Kumar’s case is equally disturbing, who publicly accused the police (inspector Nagaraju) of sustained harassment.
“In Tuni, Tirupathamma recorded a selfie video alleging police harassment before ending her life. Kalavathi from Srikakulam district committed suicide due to police harassment. In Kurnool district, Dalit woman Gangamma allegedly died due to police torture,” Jagan said.
The former CM claimed that Gangamma was secretly buried, even as her family is seeking a judicial probe into the circumstances surrounding her death