Raghurama Raju 2021 custodial torture case: Former CID ASP Vijay Paul arrested

Ongole: Andhra Pradesh Police have arrested a retired senior police officer in the alleged custodial torture case of K Raghurama Krishna Raju during the YSRCP regime.

Vijay Paul served as a CID assistant superintendent of police (ASP) and allegedly played a role in the "custodial torture" of the former YSRCP MP.

K Raghurama Krishna Raju is the current Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. The case dates back to 2021 Raghurama Krishna was arrested in May 2021 during the Covid-19 second wave when he was serving as the Narasapuram MP for allegedly abusing the then Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Vijay Paul will be produced before a local court in Guntur on Wednesday. After he is remanded to judicial custody, the police are to seek police custody for further questioning.

Raghurama Krishna Raju quit YSRCP and joined TDP. He won the assembly polls from the Undi constituency and lodged cases against officials and the former CM. He alleged that he was tortured in custody. He also said that there was an attempt to murder him.

Raghurama Krishna complained:

TDP leader K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju’s 2021 arrest case has come to the fore after he lodged a complaint against YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and other officials.

He lodged a complaint on June 10, 2024, with the Guntur superintendent of police over the three-year-old incident. He accused Reddy and some senior officials of plotting a criminal conspiracy against him.

In his complaint, he alleged that senior IPS officers PV Sunil Kumar and P Sitaramanjaneyulu, police officer R Vijaya Paul, and government doctor G Prabhavathi were part of that conspiracy and subjected him to custodial torture and an attempt was made to murder him.

“A false case was registered against me by the CB-CID of the Andhra Pradesh government. On May 14, 2021, I was arrested without due process, I was bullied, unlawfully physically pulled inside the police vehicle, and forcibly taken to Guntur the same night. I was arrested without due process, including the absence of a medical examination or adherence to proper legal procedure, I was kept in the CBCID office, Guntur from 9.30 pm onwards (14 May 2021). I was not given my medicine despite having had an open-heart bypass surgery,” Raju said in the complaint.

Following the police brutality, Raju was shifted from Guntur to Secunderabad Army Hospital by the orders of the Supreme Court, he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.