No police failure in MLA’s killing, says Andhra Pradesh home minister

A legislator of Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and one of his party colleagues were killed by Maoists in a daylight attack in Visakhapatnam district, the police said on Sunday.

Andhra Pradesh home minister N Chinarajappa on Tuesday refuted the allegations of police failure in the killing of ruling Telugu Desam Party MLA Kadari Sarveswara Rao and party leader Siveri Soma in the Visakhapatnam district, crediting the police for the outlawed Maoists losing their base in the state and fleeing to neighbouring Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

A legislator of Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and one of his party colleagues were killed by Maoists in a daylight attack in Visakhapatnam district, the police said on Sunday. (ANI Photo)

“The state witnessed a long spell of lull in the militant operations of the left wing extremists only which showed the strong resolve of the state’s security forces and our government’s commitment to ensure peace. Barring minor and sporadic incidents, the state is almost free from Maoist violence in the last four and a half years of our rule”, he told Hindustan Times in an interaction.

One cannot become judgmental just going by a surprise attack since it will demoralise the security forces, he added, appealing to the opposition not to politicise a sensitive issue like extremism.

Referring to the subsequent attacks on the police stations by the infuriated tribals in Araku and Dumbriguda mandal following the killings of the lawmakers as instances of police failure, Chinnarajappa said it all happened on the spur of the moment.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party state unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana blamed chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu for the Maoists letting loose “a reign of terror” even as the police allegedly lacked professional spirit during the TDP regime. He also alleged that Naidu has been using the police forces for spying the activities of opposition leaders and for his own political gains.

The state’s former director general of police N Sambhasiva Rao in an interaction with media expressed serious concern over the failure of the police to track the movements of Maoists from Odisha even after they walked close to Dumbriguda mandal headquarters.