BRS MPs slam the BJP of using probe agencies against opposition, highlighting the arrests of Kejriwal, Kavitha

“How could the ED find someone guilty of a provision made in a government policy?” he questioned and wondered whether the probe agencies would arrest all those who might benefit from government policies.

Also Read: SC directs Kavitha to approach trial court with her bail plea

Evades reply on ED claims

He, however, evaded a reply when the ED’s charge that Kavitha had influenced the framing of the policy was brought to his notice.

Taking refuge in the fact that the case was before the court, Nageswara Rao said: “What I want to say is that governments tweak their policies from time to time. For instance, even the BJP government had made several changes to its policies like mining. This cannot be the ground for arresting someone who made the policy or the one who benefited from it.”

He said that the BJP was acting with a spite against all the Opposition parties. It is using the probe agencies as tools to intimidate them either to surrender or join the BJP.

“This trend is highly disturbing and should be nipped as it did not augur well for a large democracy like India,” he said, adding that the way Kavitha was arrested in Hyderabad also showed how dictatorial the BJP had become.

He said that Kavitha was arrested after sunset, was flown to Delhi and was kept at ED’s office that night before producing her in court.

Also Read: Kejriwal to contest remand before moving SC against arrest

‘No concern was given’

The probe agency had no concern that the person they were arresting was the daughter of the former chief minister.

More importantly, she is a woman who is protected by law against arrest after sundown, he said and appealed to the people of Telangana to see through the gameplan of the saffron party and support the BRS in the Lok Sabha elections.

Rajya Sabha member KR Suresh Reddy said that the BJP had graduated in conducting simultaneous raids across the nation to intimidate and arrest the Opposition leaders who did not fall on their line ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

In the past, the raids used to take place ahead of Assembly elections in respective states but now the party has gone one step forward, he said.

Suresh Reddy said that the BJP’s hypocrisy on respecting women was evident from the way the ED had arrested Kavitha even as the prime minister professed reverence and respect for women and considered them as Shakti which is the driving force of mankind.

Also Read: Electoral bonds nothing but ‘quid pro quo’, says Telangana CM

Expresses faith in the judiciary

He said that he had a lot of respect and faith in the judiciary and hoped that Kavitha would come out unscathed.

Rajya Sabha member Vaddiraju Ravichandra said that the BJP was prolonging what it calls the liquor scam like the unending episodes of a television series. The BJP strikes when the elections are around the corner and would drag it till eternally, he said.

He said that after the BJP came to power in 2014, the number of ED cases reached 2,954. The number was only 200 between 2004 and 2014, he said and pointed out that Kavitha was only a victim in the case and not the culprit.

MP Manne Srinivas Reddy (Mahabubnagar) said that the BJP would have to pay a heavy price for the political witch-hunting going on across the nation. The saffron party has been using the probe agencies as a remote control to wreak vengeance on political adversaries, he said.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao took the BJP to task in a message on X on Thursday.

Condemning the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, he said that the ED and the CBI had become the chief instruments of repression in the hands of the BJP.

Political opponents are targeted on unsubstantiated grounds and political vendetta is their sole purpose, he said.

Strongly condemn the unlawful arrest of Delhi CM #ArvindKejriwal Ji

The ED and the CBI have become the chief instruments of repression in the hands of BJP. Political opponents are targeted on unsubstantiated grounds & political vendetta is their sole purpose

— KTR (@KTRBRS) March 21, 2024

(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)