Andhra HC denies anticipatory bail to YSRCP leader in TDP office attack case

In a setback to YSR Congress Party leader Vallabhneni Vamsi, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday dismissed his anticipatory bail petition in a case relating to the attack on Telugu Desam Party office.

The former MLA had approached the court for anticipatory bail in the case registered against him and others for the attack on the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) office at Gannavaram in February 2023 when YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) was in power.

Vamsi is currently in judicial custody for allegedly kidnapping and threatening Satyavardhan, a computer operator in TDP’s Gannavaram office who is the complainant in the attack case.

The former MLA is the 71st accused in the case registered for the attack on the TDP office. During the hearing on the anticipatory bail petition, Vamsi’s counsel submitted to the court that the former MLA was not present during the attack on the TDP office.

Andhra Pradesh Police arrested Vamsi from his residence in Hyderabad on February 13. The next day a court in Vijayawada sent him and his followers Shivarama Krishna Prasad and Lakshmipathy to judicial remand for 14 days.

Vamsi and his followers, allegedly involved in the TDP office attack case, kidnapped Satyavardhan and threatened him to withdraw the case.

A case under Bharat Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 140 (1) (kidnap), 308, 351 (3) (criminal intimidation) and under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was booked against Vamsi and others.

However, the YSRCP has denied the allegations against Vamsi and accused the TDP-led coalition government of indulging in political vendetta against the former MLA from Gannavaram.

Vamsi defected from the TDP to the YSRCP in 2020 and has since been a bitter critic of the TDP and its national president Chandrababu Naidu.

Former Chief Minister and YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday met Vamsi in Vijayawada sub-jail. He alleged that there is a total breakdown of law and order in the state.

Jagan alleged that the TDP-led coalition government had cooked up charges against the former MLA in a false case.

He claimed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu through TDP leader Pattabhi insulted Vamsi and provoked him which led to the attack on TDP’s Gannavaram office.

Reddy said Vamsi’s name was nowhere mentioned in the case that was registered in connection with the attack but after the TDP-led coalition came to power the case was reopened. He claimed that since Satyavardhan, an employee in the TDP office, gave a statement that Vamsi was not involved in the attack, the government out of political vendetta booked a false case of kidnapping and threatening Satyavardhan.