Lagacherla incident: Is deliberate attempt being made to frame KTR

As the ruling Congress is going hammer and tongs in accusing the involvement of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a close look at the developments before and after the attack reveal a different narrative.

Hyderabad: Apart from fueling the political heat, the attack on Vikarabad Collector Prateek Jain at Lagacherla on November 12 is taking different turns, besides raising enough apprehensions over conspiracy to frame BRS working president KT Rama Rao in the incident.

As the ruling Congress is going hammer and tongs in accusing the involvement of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a close look at the developments before and after the attack reveal a different narrative.

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Consider this. On October 25, villagers and farmers at Rotibanda thanda in Kodangal constituency vehemently opposed the Congress government’s plans to set up a pharma village. They had even locked up Congress mandal president A Shekhar, a close aide of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in the gram panchayat office for arguing with the villagers over establishment of the pharma village.

Following this incident, Vikarabad Collector Prateek Jain visited Lagacherla on November 12 to seek farmers and residents opinion over establishment of the pharma village.

Generally, when there are apprehension of eruption of violence in a village over land acquisition for a project, the district administration, especially police take precautionary measures and make elaborate arrangements before conducting a public hearing programme in another village. However, this was found lacking at Lagacherla.

Despite the stiff opposition from villagers over the proposal to set up pharma village, hardly any police personnel accompanied the Collector. If the police were accompanying the Collector, why did they not reach the venue for public hearing in time when he was allegedly attacked is a big question, that defies any answer.

Another interesting fact is that soon after the incident, the Collector sought to play down the incident and asserted on record that it was not an attack on him. But the entire narrative took a new turn with Congress elected public representatives and a few Ministers claiming that phone calls records indicated multiple conversations between BRS working president, former MLA Patnam Narender Reddy and the accused BRS leader Suresh.

However, this theory got exposed in the police remand report, which said there was only one call between the former MLA and the leader. How did the Ministers and Congress leaders come to know about multiple phone calls between the BRS leaders?

As many as 55 persons, including farmers were taken into custody in connection with the incident but only 20 were remanded. Of these, majority of them were charged of being affiliated with the BRS and none of the Congress leaders were picked up. Did the Congress leaders have any prior information about the Collector’s visit, is another question.

More so, heavy police force was deployed in Lagacherla and neighbouring villages after the incident. Internet services were disconnected and the media personnel were denied entry into the village to report the ground situation on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Chief Minister’s elder brother A Tirupati Reddy visited the village and the District Collector came out of his chambers to accord a warm welcome to him. Despite the resistance from villagers, Tirupati Reddy announced that a pharma village would be set up.

Considering all these incidents, there is a strong suspicion among different sections that it is only a conspiracy to frame KT Rama Rao.

Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy has been claiming that political bombs would explode in the State. The Excise officials’ raid during a housewarming ceremony at Janwada on October 27 did not yield the ‘desired’ results to corner the BRS working president.

Many observe that the Congress government is getting intolerant and desperate measures are being taken to implicate the BRS working president in different issues like the Lagacherla incident.