The YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday filed a petition with the Hyderabad High Court seeking direction to transfer the probe into the attempt on his life on October 25 to an independent agency. In his petition, Jagan said he was aggrieved by the abuse of the criminal justice administration by the AP government headed by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Jagan was on October 25 attacked inside the Vizag airport while he was waiting for a flight to Hyderabad. The attacker, J Srinivasa Rao, approached Jagan on the pretext of taking a selfie and stabbed him on his arm with a blade used during rooster fights.
Soon after the attack on Jagan, RP Thakur, the AP Director General of Police (DGP) held a press conference stating that the assailant, Srinivasa, was a fan of the YSRCP chief and the attack was done for the purpose of seeking publicity. In his petition to the HC, Jagan pointed out that this press conference was held within an hour of the attack without proper investigation.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had also addressed a press conference on the same day where he claimed that the attack on Jagan was an orchestrated effort to defame the state government. Naidu went on to allege the attack as being a part of ‘Operation Garuda’, a conspiracy meant to unseat him as the CM.
The petition also states the AP government and the state police failed to respond to the attack and take action in a legally provided matter. He further stated that the CM had even trivialized the attack on him as not being a serious one as Jagan had gone home first after arriving at the Hyderabad airport. The CM had alleged that Jagan only went to the hospital after being advised by other political party leaders and BJP leaders from Delhi, for publicity. The CM had reportedly said that the wound on Jagan’s arm was only 0.5 cm in depth and not serious in nature, however, Jagan told the court that the doctors confirmed that the cut was 3.5 cm in depth with a torn muscle and could have turned fatal if the blade ruptured his carotid artery. The wound required nine stitches.
Jagan’s petition also stated that he narrowly escaped, “thanks to divine intervention and his reflex action” and claimed that his attacker was a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) sympathiser and a senior office-bearer of the party's village unit.
His decision to move court comes days after he wrote to the Centre seeking a central agency probe into the attack.
The investigation so far
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case traced the call data of Srinivasa and found that he had been in touch with several people from within and outside AP. Police detained three persons including a woman from Kanigiri of Prakasam district and has sent teams to nab two persons from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh who were corresponding with Srinivasa, reported The New Indian Express.
The SIT also moved the metropolitan court seeking permission to collect Srinivasa’s handwriting and signature. The officials have also sought possession of Jagans’ blood-stained shirt to aid their investigation. Statements from eyewitnesses and Jagan himself are yet to be recorded.