YSR Congress’ Jagan Mohan Reddy writes to Rajnath Singh, seeks central probe for attack on him

“This would only ensure that the investigation would not be vitiated and the real reasons behind the attack on me would be unearthed,” Jagan Reddy said in the letter.

YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday asked Union home minister Rajnath Singh for a probe by a central agency into the knife attack on him last week as he indicated a conspiracy behind the incident by allegedly pointing fingers at the ruling Telegu Desam Party.

YSR Congress President YS Jaganmohan Reddy asked Rajnath Singh for a probe by a central agency into the knife attack on him last week .(Sonu Mehta/HT File Photo)

A delegation of YSR Congress leaders met Singh in New Delhi seeking to remove the Andhra Pradesh police from the investigation into the attack on Reddy. They submitted a two-page letter signed by Jagan Reddy, requesting for directions to entrust the probe to any agency which is not under the state government’s control.

“This would only ensure that the investigation would not be vitiated and the real reasons behind the attack on me would be unearthed,” Jagan Reddy said in the letter. Jagan Reddy said he has no faith in the state police, accusing chief minister Naidu of influencing the investigation teams by trivialising the case and saying the assault was premeditated by the YSR Congress to gain public sympathy in his favour ahead of elections.

He received a deep cut in his left shoulder in the attack by J Srinivasa Rao, a 30-year-old chef at the Sri Fusion Foods at the airport in Visakhapatnam on October 25. After meeting Singh, YSR Congress party’s general secretary V Vijayasayi Reddy told reporters that the Union minister was quite positive over their request.

“When AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and director general of police RP Thakur stated that the airport in Visakhapatnam where the attack was reported would come under the jurisdiction of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a central agency, we said it is a fit case to be probed by any central agency and Singh was convinced by our request,” Vijayasai Reddy said.

The YSR Congress former MPs YV Subba Reddy, YS Avinash Reddy, PV Mithun Reddy, V Varaprasad, and Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy were among those who met Singh.

Subba Reddy has already petitioned the Hyderabad High Court pleading for a probe by a central agency into the attack, which is posted for a hearing on Monday.

Visakhapatnam city police commissioner Mahesh Chandra Ladda said the special investigation team (SIT) constituted to probe the attack case has been interrogating four employees of Sri Fusion Foods at the airport along with Srinivasa Rao.

YSR Congress leaders met the Union minister a day after Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu enlisted support from opposition leaders to counter the “joint conspiracy” plotted by the Bharatiya Janata (BJP) and YSRC to destabilise his government by leveraging on the attack on Jagan Reddy.

Naidu sought the help of Mayawati of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.