Govt, police guilty of weaver's suicide: TDP

TDP State general secretary Panchumarty Anuradha on Thursday held the YSRCP government and the State police responsible for the 'selfie suicide' of auto driver Picchuka Majji who belonged to a weaver's family in Rajahmundry rural police limits.

Anuradha said that the police subjected the weaver's son to extreme harassment after filing an illegal liquor transportation case against him last year. The police called Picchuka Majji to the police station under notice 41 and asked for Rs 1 lakh in order to waive the case.

In a statement here, the TDP leader deplored that the police had further harassed and threatened to file many more cases involving ganja and smuggling, if the weaver's son did not pay the amount.

Left with no alternative, Pichchuka Majji committed suicide and took a selfie video which went viral. Anuradha demanded the government to explain what it was doing when the khaki officers were victimising and asking for illegal gratification in the police stations itself. The weavers also lost hope and they were saying that this government would not extend any help or support in the case of the youth's suicide.

The Jagan Reddy regime had got the dubious distinction of sending a police officer accused in a rape case to Parliament.

The TDP leader said that a weaver's son who was eking out his livelihood by driving an auto rickshaw had now fallen victim to the harassment of the police. What was this government doing to the weavers in the past two and half years, she questioned.

The government benefits are being given to just 60,000 out of the total 3.5 lakh weavers in the State. However, the ruling party leaders are making shameless claims that their government is taking total care of the weavers, she alleged.