Special court for call money cases

He said the police had registered 227 cases of which five involved sexual harassment. He said whenever moneylending is linked to sexual harassment of female borrowers or women members of the borrowers’ families, the government was applying the amended provisions of Criminal Procedure Code. In all, the police had arrested 188 persons who include 65 YSRC sympathisers, 20 belonging to the TD, 12 Congress, four BJP, six CPI, two Lok Satta, and one sympathiser of the CPM.

He said that since a judicial inquiry had been ordered, victims could approach the commission. Detailing how the racket was cracked, Mr Naidu said that on December 10 a woman had complained to the Vijayawada police commissioner that Yalama-nchili Sriram Murthy had sexually exploited her along with a few other persons by taking advantage of her inability to repay a loan of Rs 10 lakh.

She stated that he raped her and had started forcing her to submit to other persons. The Machavaram police registered a case and during investigations identified other persons. Mr Naidu said that on December 11 he had directed the DGP and the Vijayawada police commissioner to firmly deal with the case on priority basis. The DGP had directed police all over the state to focus on private moneylending and invited complaints against harassment by moneylenders.

Sriram Murthy, the main accused, was arrested on December 13 and the second accused P. Bhavani Shankar four days later. Mr Naidu said the police arrested Chennupati Srinu, the third accused and maternal uncle of former MLA V. Radha Krishna, Transco deputy engineer Satyanandam, Sriram Murthy’s business partner V Srikant, Pendyala Srikanth and Dudala Rajesh. Rajesh, who was arrested on December 13, had a criminal record, Mr Naidu said. Mr Naidu said Rajesh had contested for the Vijayawada civic elections on a Congress ticket.

He said 2013 also similar incidents of moneylending and harassment of public had been reported in the media but the government of the day did not respond with sincerity. He said his government was very serious about the curbing the menace of unscrupulous moneylenders, and would enact a very stringent law to regulate the business.

YSRC MLAs rushed to the CM’s seat and raised slogans like “Call money CM down, down”. Reacting to this Mr Naidu said, “I will not be down if you repeatedly say down, down” and added, “Doing wrong deeds, going to jail and coming out on bail, this is the culture of the YSRC.” At one stage former minister Alapati Rajendra Prasad tried to rush to the CM’s seat but minister K. Atchennaidu stopped him. The Speaker also objected to the YSRC MLAs’ behaviour and asked “What is this, are you going to raid the CM’s seat.”

Later, the YSRC chief said the call money allegations were against the CM, his son and party MLAs and said Mr Naidu had no right to give a statement on the racket. When he said he was not being given a chance to raise a point of order, the Speaker reminded him that the House had not started business. YSRC MLAs continued the dharna at the CM’s seat raising slogans when Mr Naidu was reading his statement. To this, the CM said “There is no protection for the CM in the House, what about the others? He asked the YSRC MLAs, “Are you coming to my seat for a raid?” Mr Naidu alleged that the YSRC was stalling the discussion on call money scam to protect the culprits.