Hyderabad: MLA with YSR violates election code of conduct, arrested with cash

Anantapur/Hyderabad: The Raidurg police on Friday arrested local YSR Congress MLA Kapu Ramachandra Reddy for allegedly trying to influence the voters of Raidurg municipality by supplying valuable materials, thus violating the election code of conduct.

On Thursday night, the police had seized a large number of wall clocks with figures of party chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the MLA and the party’s symbol — fan — along with and saris, clothes, cricket kits, '36 lakh worth of gift cheques and other material, at the Bellary checkpost.

On a tip-off, the Bellary cops raided Mr Ramachandra Reddy’s residence in Bellary in Karnataka on Thursday.

After an alert from Bellary police about dumping of material at Raidurg to distribute among local voters, the Anantapur police conducted searches at residences of YSRC MLA Kapu Ramachandra Reddy and his close aides throughout Thur-sday night and seized 3,116 wall clocks and clothes. These were in addition to goods seized at the Bellary checkpost.

The Raidurg police arrested Mr Ramach-andra Reddy from his residence at Raidurg on Friday on charges of violating the election code of conduct. Mr Reddy, who was granted bail on Friday evening, complained of low blood pressure and illness and got himself admitted at the government hospital in Raidurg.

The area was tense since Thursday night as the MLA and his aides tried to resist the raids claiming that the material was for mass marriage celebrations to be held in May. However, special teams completed the task.

It may be mentioned that the local Raidurg police had faced an embarrassing situation recently when Mr Reddy had attempted suicide by consuming pesticide at the police station protesting against police harassment on his party men.

Meanwhile, YSRC leaders met director-general of police B. Prasada Rao and complained against the alleged harassment of Mr Ramachandra Reddy by the Anantapur police.

YSRC leaders H.A. Rehman, K. Shiva Kumar and Challa Madhusudhan Reddy met the DGP. “Raidurg inspector of police Bhaskar Reddy has been foisting false cases to malign the character of Ramachandra Reddy. The allegations made against him are frivolous and he had made no attempts to bribe the voters. Recently, he had consumed poison protesting against the police action due to which he was hospitalised. Bearing a grudge, the Raidurg police is now harassing him,” said Mr Shiva Kumar.