Raghu Rama Krishna Raju – YSR Congress Party MP, was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh CID on Friday night. The arrest by CID came at a time when the MP was commemorating his birthday with his family. Raju has been outrageously charged with various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) – all for merely daring to raise his voice against sitting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. The CID has charged the MP under Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 505 (statements conducing public mischief) read with 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
But that is not all. In fact, the CID officials have also been accused of engaging in third-degree torture of an elected member of parliament Upon being asked by the magistrate if he was in any trouble, Raghu Rama Krishna Raju said that he was being beaten by the CID police since Friday night. He also showed his injured legs – which had turned tender and purple due to the inhumane torture. He also gave a four-page complaint to the magistrate, in which he said some persons came at night with a mask and tied his feet with rope and beat him up with rubber belts and made him walk with hurt feet. When he could not walk any further, they left him.
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The police statement in relation to the sitting MP’s arrest had stated, “Through his speeches on regular basis Mr Raju was indulging in systematic, schematic effort to cause tensions among the communities and by attacking various government dignitaries in a way which will cause loss of faith in the government which they represent”.
However, what is actually the crime of Raghu Rama Krishna Raju? Well, his crime is that he is a rebel YSR Congress MP and that he is not an enthusiastic participant in the Jagan Mohan Reddy sycophancy club in Andhra Pradesh.
Whether it be criticising Reddy’s handling of the pandemic in the state or asking the CBI to cancel the bail granted to the Chief Minister in an alleged disproportionate assets case, Raju has done it all. The MP is a one-man opposition to Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.
In a recent video, the MP alleged that the state is underreporting Covid-19 deaths and that the Reddy government was trying to make people addicted to alcohol. The MP is also a known critic of the conversions perpetrated by Christian missionaries in Andhra Pradesh.
For being a critic of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, the sitting MP seems to have been subjected to third-degree torture while in custody and a barrage of non-sensical charges under the IPC, which include sedition.