Narender Reddy’s arrest grim reminder of Emergency days, says Harish Rao

Condemning the arrest of former Kodangal MLA Patnam Narender Reddy, despite the fact that he was not connected with the Lagacherla incident in any way, former Minister T Harish Rao described the police action, backed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, as a grim reminder of the Emergency days of Indira Gandhi’s rule. He visited Narender Reddy in Cherlapally Jail and interacted with him in the presence of the jail staff on Thursday.

Later, speaking to media persons outside the jail, Harish Rao said the remand report was atrocious. Narender Reddy was totally ignorant of the grounds for his arrest mentioned in the report. He was made to sign the report at the last minute before departing from the magistrate and was not allowed to go through it. Narender Reddy was in for a rude shock after reading in the newspapers this morning about the mentions made in the report.

Besides implicating Narender Reddy in the case, the government also hatched a conspiracy against BRS working president KT Rama Rao by dragging him into the issue. Harish Rao called it an undemocratic act by the Congress government and accused it of undermining the



rights of leaders like S Madhusudhanachary, RS Praveen Kumar, and Karthik Reddy, who all attempted to meet the victims of the police action in Lagacherla, but were prevented from doing so and taken into custody. They were arrested illegally, as was the case with DK Aruna, the local MP. Even women in advanced stages of pregnancy were trampled upon and dragged brutally by the police without paying heed to their pleas in the incident, he said.

Harish Rao questioned the motives behind the government’s plan to acquire land in the village after diverting 14,000 acres of land acquired by the previous BRS regime for the Pharma City for the Fourth City and other real estate activities of Revanth Reddy, his brothers, and his son-in-law. The priority of Revanth Reddy was not the people who voted his party to power but bigwigs like Gautam Adani and other business houses, he said, asserting that the BRS would stand by the oustees and accused the government of planning to grab the lands of poor ST and SC farmers.

“We have profound faith in the law and the courts of law. He will come out clean,” he said on Narender Reddy’s arrest.