The Vijayawada police appear to be groping in the dark over finding out the real culprit who hurled the stone at YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at Ajit Singh Nagar in the town on Saturday night.
As a political party, the YSRCP will definitely try to cash in on the incident by blaming the attack on the TDP, but the police have to do a professional job in identifying the accused and find out the motive behind the attack.
On Tuesday morning, the cops leaked to the media that it was the handiwork of a slumdweller from Vaddera Colony and that he had admitted to have pelted a small stone picked from a broken tile of the pavement at Jagan.
The police also leaked to the media that four other boys – Akash, Durga Rao, Chinna and Santosh – were also being questioned to know the motive behind the attack and whether anybody else was behind them.
They also said they were looking into the call data records of the youths and their bank accounts, to find out whether anybody had paid them any money to hurl the stone at the chief minister.
But till evening, the Vijayawada cops did not disclose any details officially to the media, even as the arrest of the youths triggered uproar in the Vaddera Basti.
Several women from the area told the reporters openly that they had gone to Jagan’s meeting only after being promised Rs 300 cash, besides a quarter bottle of liquor to each of them.
There was another leak from the police that Satish had admitted to have pelted the stone at Jagan only because he was not paid cash as promised by the local YSRCP leaders, who gave him only a bottle of liquor.
Satish’s mother said her son was falsely implicated in the case.
“We were forcibly taken to the meeting. I went along with my son there only after they promised a liquor bottle and Rs 300. Now, they arrested my son,” she alleged.
There has been no answer from the police so far.
