Sneha and her family members were allegedly "kidnapped" and thrown into Vijayawada District jail for about 42 days.
Published Aug 31, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 31, 2024 | 8:00 AM
Police. Representational Image. (iStock)
The story of Bollywood starlet Sneha (name changed) who had an unpleasant brush with Andhra Pradesh police under the erstwhile YS Jagan Mohan Reddy dispensation, reads like the script of a commercial potboiler.
The story’s timeline began in 2014 and ends in 2024 — a full decade. Finally, after several twists and turns, the story is all set to come to an end, with the “innocent” becoming the “guilty” and vice versa.
The small-time Bollywood actress, who arrived in Hyderabad en route to Vijayawada on Friday, 30 August, broke down while narrating to the reporters the living nightmare she and her family had been through in February this year in the hands of Andhra Pradesh police of the previous government.
“Me and my family had enough of the torture by the police under the previous government. I hope justice will be served to me now. I only wish no one would undergo suffering like I did for no fault of mine,” she said.
Sneha fought back tears while explaining the attempts at her character assassination.
“I want the government to take action against those who are responsible for carrying out a campaign that I was after money in the social media,” she said, adding that she would hand over the evidence to the present investigation officer after reaching Vijayawada. She has lodged a complaint online with the police after the change of government.
The dramatis-personae in the protracted tale of love and break-up which led her and her family members being “kidnapped” from their home in Mumbai in February and thrown into Vijayawada District jail for about 42 days, included YSRCP leader Kukkala Vidyasagar Rao, son of former Krishna ZP chairperson Kukkala Nageswara Rao and two IPS officers who were “tasked” to execute the sordid action.
Simply put, Vidyasagar Rao, who had an affair with her wanted to get rid of her the moment she began asking him to marry her and took the help of the Ibrahimpatnam police to throw a scare into her and her ageing parents’ eyes.
In February this year, Vidyasagar Rao lodged a complaint with Ibrahimpatnam police near Vijayawada in the NTR police commissionerate, alleging that he was a victim of blackmail and extortion. He alleged that Sneha had forced him to transfer five acres of his agriculture land in Jaggayyapet in the erstwhile Krishna district to her name.
In support of his complaint, he produced a document dated 2018 in which Sneha’s address was given as an apartment in Juhu in Mumbai. However, according to her, she purchased the said apartment much later, in 2020. The stamp paper bore the year of its sale as 2023, which, according to her, proves that it is a fake document.
After the change of the government in Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada Commissioner of Police SV Rajasekhar Babu examined the case diary at Ibahimpatam police station related to the case against Sneha and her family members. The commissioner found several lapses in the investigation and submitted a report to the DGP Ch Dwarkara Tirumala Rao.
Following the instructions from the DGP, the police commissioner on Thursday appointed Assistant Commissioner Sravanthi Rai as the investigation officer to determine who was the victim and who was the tormentor.
It looks as though the carrots of the “heroes of the case” — complainant Vidyasagar Rao and the two IPS officers who “kidnapped and punished” her are cooked.
Armed with the objectionable content she had received from Vidaysagar and the details of the video calls he had made to her, she approached the Vijayawada police seeking justice. The police are looking into the way the two IPS officers are alleged to have acted apparently on instructions from their political bosses.
According to her account, as soon as the case of forgery was registered against her in Ibrahimpatnam police station near Vijayawada in February, the police left for Mumbai immediately and after creating as scene at her apartment, arrested her and her parents, obtained a PT warrant from a Mumbai court and brought them to Vijayawada and sent them to judicial remand.
Even when they were in jail, the police used to put pressure on them against raising the demand for marriage threatening that if they did not forget the marriage, they would have to languish in jail forever. After satisfying themselves that the family’s morale had been totally broken, they helped them get bail and allowed them to return to Mumbai but not before taking their signatures on empty white papers.
Now the police are preparing to examine the CCTV footage in jail to decide if the allegations that the police officers visited them in jail were true. The Vijayawada Police Commissioner, on instructions from his senior officials, is quite keen on taking the case to its logical end.
A police team is also likely to visit Mumbai to verify the veracity of the starlet’s complaint that the police had acted high-handedly with her and her family members while moving them from Mumbai to Ibrahmipatnam.
Meanwhile, TDP senior leader Varla Ramaiah urged Chandrababu Naidu to refer the case to the CBI. Ramaiah, who himself was a police officer in the past, demanded that the police should investigate the role, if any, of former chief mistier YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his comrade-in-arms Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy.
Old sins indeed cast long shadows.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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