Political witchhunt going on, will not back down, says KTR

Asserting that neither he nor the BRS would back down from the fight that it was waging for the last 11 months against the atrocities and faulty policies of the Congress government, Rama Rao said it was a shame that the ruling party was targeting not just him, but his relatives as well.

Hyderabad: Terming the police and excise raids on his residence and those of his relatives part of a political witchhunt by the Congress government, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday said the Congress was resorting to such deliberate, malicious acts because it was unable to counter the BRS politically. Asserting that neither he nor the BRS would back down from the fight that it was waging for the last 11 months against the atrocities and faulty policies of the Congress government, Rama Rao said it was a shame that the ruling party was targeting not just him, but his relatives as well.

Addressing a late night press conference at his Nandi Nagar residence, Rama Rao said the attempt was to destroy his mental strength by targeting and humiliating his family members, and said that whether it was Rahul Gandhi or Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy who was behind the entire drama, they should remember that such malicious acts would not deter him from posing questions on the shoddy governance by the Congress.

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“I’m prepared for the extreme and will not be afraid of such false cases,” he said, adding that BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao had prepared the party workers mentally to face any adversity and there was no question of backing down on the issue of holding the government responsible for its failures.

Pointing out that for the last 24 hours, a ‘ridiculous drama’ was being played out, he said it was common in Telangana for families to come together at their homes for occasions like Dasara or Diwali. His brother-in-law Raj Pakala too had done the same thing. He had organised a family get-together in connection with the house-warming ceremony of his new home, with those who attended including elderly people aged 70 years, children ranging from two to eight years old and husbands and wives. It was not a farm house as was being projected, but a house owned by Raj Pakala, he said.

Strongly coming down on attempts to portray a family get-together as a “rave party”, Rama Rao criticised news channels and social media handles that derived some sort of devilish pleasure by calling it a rave party. Police had said there were “men and women”, when it was a family function, where husbands and wives, children, relatives and friends attended. Playing videos of senior Excise officials including a Superintendent and CI categorically stating that no drug was found even after using trained sniffer dogs, he said still what was an Excise case for possessing extra liquor bottles had become an NDPS Act case by evening, obviously with officials bowing to political pressure. This was even after 13 of the 14 persons tested for drugs tested negative. One person had tested positive, but instead of investigating from where he consumed it, the entire gathering was being maligned, he said, adding that attempts were being made to cast aspersions by terming husbands and wives as just “men and women at a rave party’.

The NDPS Act case had sections related to supplier, consumption and co-host, even when officials themselves said nothing was found and that there was no proof of that one person consuming drugs at the venue or of anyone supplying drugs there, he said.

Rama Rao also denied reports that he had left the venue five minutes before the raid, stating that he was with his father and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao at his Erravali residence and had gone home from there, where he had dinner, spent time with his family and slept. It was when he woke up in the morning that he came to hear news of the raid.

Rama Rao also challenged Revanth Reddy to hold Assembly sessions on the six guarantees, the Musi project, the AMRUT scam and the crop loan waiver, instead of resorting to such tasteless tactics, while ignoring much more burning issues that were happening across the State.