Jagan govt follows failed “Friday arrest” attempt on TDP MLC Ashok Babu

The YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh headed by Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy continues to adopt the policy of making arrests of its political rivals on Fridays although it was proved several times earlier that these attempts have failed miserably.

Almost all the accused who were arrested on Fridays or weekends by ACB or CID secured bail and came out of the jail on weekdays soon after.

In the latest instance, TDP MLC P Ashok Babu was taken into custody by APCID on the early hours of Friday on charges of submitting fake education certificate to secure promotion in the commercial taxes department, when he was an employee of the state government.

Although Ashok Babu tried for bail in the AP High Court, the court adjourned the case until Monday.

Arresting political rivals on Friday or weekends has been the norm since the YSRCP government headed by Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy came to power in Andhra Pradesh in May 2019.

In all the cases which have political implications and which could target political rivals of YSRCP, the raids and arrests are happening only during weekends, namely, especially Friday and Saturday.

For instance, APCID raided the house of YSRCP rebel MP Raghurama Raju on May 14 this year, which was Friday.

The AP ACB raided the house of TDP senior leader and MLA Atchannaidu on June 12 this year, which was Saturday.

Similarly, AP police arrested TDP leader and former MLA JC Prabhakar Reddy on June 12 last year, which was a Friday.

The AP ACB arrested TDP senior leader and former MLA Dhulipalla Narendra on April 23 this year, which was a Friday.

The strategy seems to be simple. The courts have holidays on Saturday and Sunday and the arrested cannot move courts for bail if they are arrested during weekends.

The investigation agencies can have the custody of the accused for two to three days and they can extract the information in the three days in their custody and complete their task assigned by their higher-ups.

However, in all these cases, the accused secured bails from the High Court later.