HYDERABAD: The prime accused in the June 17 anti-Agnipath riot case that took place in Secunderabad railway station Avula Subba Rao earlier worked in the Army as a nursing assistant and retired from the service in 2011, according to the police. He was officially arrested along with his henchmen, Malla Reddy, Shiva Kumar and Beesi Reddy on Friday.
The motive behind the riot was to make sure the Union government withdrew its Agnipath scheme so that his coaching academies could run without losing money, said the superintendent of the Government Railway Police (GRP), B. Anuradha.
“Subba Rao planned and executed the riot by provoking the aspirants as his defence academies will be at risk of closure due to the Agnipath scheme. The physically selected aspirants were trained in his academy and were waiting for a written exam. Due to the new scheme, they will lose a huge amount of money. To create an impact on the Indian government to repeal the Agnipath scheme, he chose to support the agitators and provided logistics,” said the official.
Subba Rao is aware of the Army recruitment procedures and rallies and had started Sai Defence Academy in 2014 at Narasaraopet of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. “He also attends the rallies and rents out function halls near by the physical test centre and train the job aspirants about the medical test to be conducted the next morning. They also pay some money to these aspirants,” said the official.
During the start of their coaching, the aspirants deposit original certificates and sign a bond for Rs 3 lakhs to be paid after getting the job. The academy returns their original certificates only after the amount is paid and earns huge money through recruitments.
“In the 2019 Army recruitment, rallies were held and candidates were given coaching by the academies for a written exam. Due to Covid-19, the exam was not conducted and postponed several times. The academies and Army aspirants gave representations several times to AROs (Army Recruitment Office) for conducting CEE exam. The students created many WhatsApp groups and shared updates about the CEE. In May 2022, the academy and the aspirants took out a rally and gave the representations to AROs,” added the police.
However, as the Union government announced about the Agnipath scheme on 14 June and declared that they were not going to conduct CEE to the physical test qualifiers, agitations took place in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar leading to violence and burning of trains. “Their plan was to carry out another rally to the ARO in Secunderabad but they were provoked by Subba Rao and others to riot and protest at the Secunderabad railway station,” said the official.
Cases were booked under sections 143, 147, 324, 307, 435, 427, 448, 336, 332, 341, 120 (B), 201 r/w 149 of the IPC, sections 147, 145 (C), 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 174 (A), 162, 164, 166 of the Railway Act and sections 3 and 4 of PDPP (Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act) Act, along with section 174 of CrPC by the Secunderabad Railway Police. “Investigation is in progress to identify the other defence academy directors who supported this riot,” added the police.
