Andhra Pradesh: Ruling YSRC rebel MP held on charges including sedition

He was allegedly 'indulging in hate speeches against certain communities and promoting disaffection against the government'

Rebel MP of the ruling YSR Congress, K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju, has been arrested on various charges, including sedition, for "indulging in hate speeches against certain communities and promoting disaffection against the government", the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh Police said on Friday.

"A preliminary inquiry has been ordered by CID Additional Director General P V Sunil Kumar.In the inquiry it was found that through his speeches on regular basis Mr Raju was indulging in systematic, schematic effort to cause tensions among the communities and by attacking various government dignitaries in a way which will cause loss of faith in the government which they represent," an official release here said.

"There is hate speech against communities and social groups also, which was used to foment social and public order disturbances in conspiracy with a few media channels," the release alleged.

The release added that, on the orders of the CID ADG, a case under Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 505 (statements conducing public mischief) read with 120B (conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code was registered against the MP.

The Lok Sabha member from Narsapuram constituency, who had rebelled against the YSRC over a year ago, had been making critical remarks against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for several months now.

In recent days, he has been attacking the state government over the "mishandling" of the Covid-19 crisis.

The Central Reserve Police Force, under whose protection the MP is in on the orders of the Union Home Ministry, allegedly tried to prevent the CID sleuths from taking Raju into custody but the CID authorities reportedly took up the matter with the CRPF top brass and went ahead with their action.

The MP was celebrating his birthday at his Hyderabad residence when the CID men nabbed him.

"About 30 CID men came to our house without any warrant and forcibly took away our father.They even shoved the CRPF personnel away.We were not served any notices," Rajus son Bharat alleged.