Amaravati: Chandrababu Naidu urges Governor to safeguard freedom of expression

Amaravati: Former chief Minister and TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday appealed to Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan to intervene and restore the fundamental rights to citizens of the state as promised in the Constitution. Naidu termed it as a historic necessity in view of a continuing spate of unlawful arrests of different sections of people ever since the YSRCP assumed power in 2019.

In a letter to the Governor here, Naidu said two youth of Prakasam district were wrongfully arrested and tortured by the police in connection with recent seizure of Rs 5.27 crore in a car with sticker of minister Balineni Srinivas Reddy in Tamil Nadu.

Naidu told the Governor that Vadella Sandeep Kumar of Ongole, and Thottempudi Chandrasekhar of Naidupalem village in Tangutur mandal of Prakasam district were arrested on July 16 for social media posts. The news of seizure of money has been telecast and published in Tamil media across Tamil Nadu.

The TDP chief said the Ongole police have not launched any thorough investigation and stringent action against the culprits who were illegally transporting huge amounts of cash from the state.

Instead, they arrested Sandeep at 1 pm and Chandrasekhar at 4 pm on July 16. The Ongole rural police arrested the two and moved them from one police station to another, and physically tortured them. Such acts of physical torture and manhandling by the police have no place in a civilised society and democratic polity like ours.

Naidu told the Governor that the harassment and unlawful arrests based on social media posts was an act of violation of fundamental rights and freedom of expression under Article 19 guaranteed by the Constitution.

In another letter to Prakasam district SP, the TDP chief described the arrest of two youth as 'inhuman, barbarous and uncivilised" and demanded a thorough investigation to deliver justice to the aggrieved in accordance with the law.