Cong cocks a snook at law - The Grand Old Party Prefers Political Gains To Letting Law Take Its Own Course

Withdrawing cases against certain groups or individuals following an agitation or due to political reasons seems to be the standard practice of the Congress governments in the state.However,this time around,the Congress regime had to annul its own decision as it was the same government that had booked the cases against students of all the three regions following their agitation for and against creation of Telangana since December last year. Starting from cases filed after the murder of Congress MLA Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga Rao to present cases of pro-Telangana and united state movements, successive Congress governments never hesitated to withdraw cases if such decision gave a political advantage. Congress MLA Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga Rao was brutally murdered in the early hours of December 25,1988,in Vijayawada when he was on an indefinite fast to demand personal security.His murder sparked unprecedented caste riots in the entire coastal Andhra region,leading to scores of deaths and destruction of properties worth crores of rupees.Police filed more than 2,500 cases against thousands of people.

However,in 1989,when the Congress came back to power defeating the Telugu Desam Party,the then chief minister M Chenna Reddy issued a GO,withdrawing all cases filed against those indulged in violence following Rangas murder.More than 1,415 cases were lifted by the then Congress government though many of the cases related to arson,violence,assault and damage to public and private property.
After Y S Rajasekhara Reddy came to power in 2004,thousands of cases filed during the electricity movement, that was actually spearheaded by the Congress with the support of the two Left parties,were withdrawn. But after the Left parties parted ways with the Congress,the cases filed against the Left cadres following their land struggle were not withdrawn.CPM leaders have alleged that YSR had instructed the district police not to withdraw cases or expedite the trial.Thousands of our cadres were imprisoned in the land struggle.We believe the YSR government did this to avenge our parting of ways, said CPM leader Y Venkateswarlu.

Later,acting on the representations submitted by the MIM,YSR took a controversial decision and lifted 1.16 lakh cases filed by APTransco against those who pilfered power ahead of the 2009 elections. In an unusual act,the YSR government issued GO No.379 on November 29,2008,lifting all the cases against the domestic consumers,which were under investigation.Following this order,the power utilities lost Rs 11.57 crore of assessed money.Though the government had to reimburse the same to the power companies,it has not materialized till date. We charge-sheeted thousands of power thieves in the state but in one single stroke,all of them were set free.What would be the morale of employees involved in the investigation questioned an anguished official. Police officials are unhappy over the present developments and are fear more aggression from the students post December 31 as they are now confident that even if the police file cases against them,they can be lifted following the intervention of political leaders.

PRESSURE TACTICS: Supporters of Congress MPs Ponnam Prabhakar,Sarve Satyanarayana and G Vivek exult as their leaders end their fast following the announcement of withdrawal of all cases against the Telangana students,in Hyderabad on Tuesday
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Lifting of cases challenged in HC

Awrit petition was filed in the AP High Court on Tuesday,challenging the action of the government in withdrawing cases against the students of both Seemandhra and Telangana who indulged in arson and other offences.Alokam Sudhakar Babu,a resident of Guntur district,filed this petition.By withdrawing the cases,the state government committed some illegalities,he said.During the agitations,Rs 300 crore worth public and private property was damaged,he said and urged the court to quash the GOs issued for withdrawing the cases.
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Andhra JAC flays withdrawal of cases:

Taking strong objection to the indiscriminate withdrawal of cases against the students of all the regions, the Samaikya Andhra students JAC warned the state government that their decision would only help rise in the violence post-December 31 in the Telangana region.The student leaders from all the 14 universi-ties in the coastal and Rayalaseema regions met in Guntur at Acharya Nagarjuna University campus to discuss the future action plan post submission of the Srikrishna Committee report.Speaking to media, the student JAC leaders demanded that the MPs,ministers and MLAs from the Samaikya Andhra region should get ready to quit their posts in case the Srikrishna panel recommends the separation of the state.
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(source-toi)