It is becoming more and more common for the ranks of the ruling party to become embroiled in the land mafia. Incidents of MLAs’ followers committing arbitrary land grabs are also coming to light. Yesterday, a farmer’s family approached the HRC to seek justice for MLA Lakshma Reddy’s acolyte who grabbed their land or else allow them to die a merciful death along with their children. And recently a BRS corporator was put behind bars in a land-grabbing case.
Non-bailable cases have been registered against the corporator of the ruling party who tried to grab land in Warangal city on the complaint of the victims and produced before the Second Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate. Later he was shifted to Khammam Jail. Corporator Vemula Srinivas eyed a 200-yard plot in the name of a woman named Sunitha in Hanumakonda Kakatiya Colony Phase 2.
They asked the Sunita couple several times to hand over the land in the name of development. They have already taken her permission to build a house at that place, so they refused to give the place to the corporator. Vemula Srinivas, who went there with his followers on the 13th of this month with the idea of capturing the place somehow, demolished the compound wall built by the victims and committed atrocities.
The victims lodged a complaint at Hanumakonda Police Station on the 17th of this month as they were threatened and the property was destroyed. On the orders of CP AV Ranganath, the police who conducted the preliminary investigation registered cases against the corporator and his driver Padala Kumaraswamy under sections 427, 447, and 506 of the IPC. The accused were shifted to Khammam Jail on the orders of the Magistrate. Meanwhile, after the ruling party’s corporator was sent to jail in the wake of the land grab, the rest of the grabbers were also arrested.