Andhra Pradesh: Chandrababu demands CBI probe into Kodela's suicide

AMARAVATI: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo Chandrababu Naidu has demanded that former Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker ’s suicide case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Making stinging allegations against the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government, Naidu described it as a terrorist organisation. He accused the All India Service (AIS) officers of having surrendered to the government to harass the opposition leaders at the behest of ruling party. Naidu paid floral tributes to former speaker in NTR trust bhavan on Tuesday.
Speaking to media, Naidu said that he had never seen a government wantonly working to torture and harass the opposition leaders during his 40-year-long public life. He said Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao was humiliated and harassed based on a petty charge of diversion of furniture from the assembly in spite of his repeated appeals to surrender the furniture.
He said that Dr Kodela wrote several letters to the assembly speaker and secretary soon after the change of government in the state expressing his readiness to return the furniture.
He said that Dr Kodela was prepared to pay the cost of the furniture if needed. “Without accepting any of his requests, the state government booked a criminal case against Dr Kodela under Section 409 of the IPC which attracts a 10-year jail term. The entire cost of the furniture safe-guarded by Dr Kodela could be around Rs 2 lakh. Is this the way to handle the issue? Is it not a deliberate attempt to bring disrepute and denigrate a person’s image?” Naidu fumed.
He said that troubling financially and personally to force a person to commit suicide is really unfortunate. He said that Dr Kodela’s suicide is a 100 percent government murder and it should be probed by the CBI. He said that Kodela, who lived like a tiger throughout his life, was made helpless as he was harassed right from police constable to DGP-rank official. “Do you want all of the opposition leaders to commit suicides?” he asked.
He said that the surrender of AIS officers was also unfortunate and it was going to bring doomsday to the state. Former government pleader Posani Venkateswaralu, party leaders L Ramana, GV Anjaneyulu and Ravula Chandrasekhara Reddy were also present.
Curiously, it was Naidu, who barred the CBI from entering Andhra Pradesh before the general elections. The Jaganmohan government had recently nullified the government order issued by Naidu government and gave general consent to the CBI to take up investigation of cases in the state. Recently, TDP had also made a similar demand for the CBI probe into YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case.