Chandrababu Naidu Writes to Modi, Decries NIA Probe Into Jagan Stabbing as Attack on Autonomy

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for transferring the case of attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy to the NIA and questioned the basis of the decision.

In a letter written to PM Modi, Naidu said that the move by the union government to transfer a case to an anti-terror agency, without hearing out the objections called by the state government, will just bring down the autonomy and sanctity of every institution.

“By setting up the NIA probe, the Central government now obviously wants to take upon itself the responsibility of fighting terror by sidetracking the states,” Naidu said in the letter.

Reddy, the YSRCP) leader, was attacked at the Vishakapatnam airport in October 2018. The accused, a worker at the airport canteen, attacked Reddy with a knife while he was waiting to board a flight to Hyderabad.

The attacker, Srinivas Rao, was taken into custody immediately by the state police for investigation. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state government said that the attack was a publicity stunt by the accused and did not intend to kill Reddy.

Dissatisfied with the investigation, Reddy moved the High Court with a plea that the investigation should be handed over to an independent agency but should not be under the government of Andhra Pradesh. Two other similar petitions were also filed in the High Court.

The court gave the state government and the Centre two weeks’ time to act according to Section 6 of the NIA Act. Following this, on December 31, the Ministry of Home Affairs passed an order asking NIA to take up the case. A case was registered by the investigating agency on January 1.

“The state failed miserably, played a ping-pong game in this whole investigation. They wanted to, may be, hide the real culprit. As per the 3A Civil Aviation Act, it automatically scheduled as an NIA act. The SHO needs to send the report to the state government which has to send a report to the Centre,” Ponnavoluu Sudhakar Reddy, YSRCP legal cell head and lawyer of one of the petitioners, told News18.

The local NIA court in the state has granted the NIA police seven days custody of the accused on Friday.