Former Andhra Pradesh Additional Advocate General and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP)’s legal representative Ponavalu Sudhakar Reddy has stated that they will be proceeding with a quash petition against the look out notice issued by Andhra Pradesh officials against Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy.
Sudhakar Reddy’s comments come after Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Dwaraka Tirumala Rao’s told the media on Tuesday, October 15, that Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy would be detained soon as the Guntur SP has issued a look out notice.
Sajjala is the former government advisor, considered the second in command to former AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy in the YSRCP. He has been cited as accused no 120 in the 2021 attack on TDP’s office in Mangalagiri town of Guntur district.
In 2021, the TDP central office was vandalised on October 19. The case pertaining to the attack on the TDP office was being probed by the Mangalagiri police. The AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Monday took over the probe into the attack. The police had charged YSRCP leaders and cadres with the attacks.
While the DGP stated that he was unsure which case Sajjala was likely to be detained for, the Andhra Pradesh High Court 10 days ago ordered police to not take any coercive action against Sajjala until October 25 and posted the matter of his anticipatory bail plea to that date.
The state argued that as per the testimony of two accused and two witnesses, Sajjala was present at the scene during the time of attack. “As I have argued in court, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy was nearly 600 kilometers away, which can be corroborated by TV visuals and newspaper reports,” Sudhakar Reddy told TNM.
He further said that any look out notice for Sajjala was in contempt of court’s order and as such they will be issuing a contempt notice to Guntur SP and go ahead with a quash petition against the look out notice. “There is no case for issuing a look out notice for Sajjala as per guidelines issued by the Union Home Affairs ministry,” Sudhakar Reddy added.
“The petitioner (Sajjala) must join the investigation, and the respondent-state is directed not to take any coercive steps against the petitioner, until the next date of hearing,” Justice VRK Krupa Sagar ordered.