Vijayawada top cop confirms stone attack on CM Jagan; pelter yet to be identified

Vijayawada: City Police Commissioner Kanti Rana Tata confirmed that chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was attacked with a stone by unknown miscreants during his ‘Memu Siddham’ bus yatra in the city on Saturday.

In a video byte releases on Monday, Kanti Rana Tata claimed that the analysis of the available CCTV material led to the conclusion. “The attacker is yet to be identified and by using the evidence at our disposal we are attempting to identify the accused,” he said.

The CP said the attack on CM Jagan happened on Saturday at 8:04 pm. “We have identified it as a stone attack after looking through the footage from 24 CCTVs. The stone that struck the chief minister also struck Vijayawada West MLA Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao who was standing beside the CM. Eight specialised teams have been formed to look into this matter,” Rana said.

Rana further said that the CM’s bus yatra in NTR district continued for 22 km and a total of 1,480 police personnel and 40 rope parties were organised along the bus trip. Traffic, APSP teams, dog squads and axis control personnel were also part of security, he said and added that the power supply was stopped at many places to avoid obstacles to the bus yatra of the CM.

‘Power was shut down for security reasons’

The CP said that for security and safety, as usual, the power supply was stopped in the area where the rooftop VIP programme reached. When the bus was approaching Vivekananda School after crossing a courtyard, a person hurled a stone at CM Jagan. Teams were assembled, including authorities who had previously worked on the matter, to look into the incident after the stone struck the CM and Vellampalli’s eyes.

“We have looked up the individuals’ cell phone numbers that were present at the time. Over 50 people had been questioned and the accused will be apprehended shortly. We also have strong evidence in this case. After the bus yatra entered Singh Nagar, there were about 4,000-5,000 people gathered at the Daba Kotla centre, where the incident happened,” Rana said.

The CP said that the attack on the chief minister was done with a stone and it may not have been an attack with an air gun. “We are working on understanding how the stone was thrown. We currently have only two-megapixel camera evidence available. The case will be dealt with soon,” he said.