TDP, BJP demand withdrawal of cases against media personnel

Vijayawada: Stating that the Visakhapatnam police have suo moto registered FIRs against some media personnel and the BJP contesting candidate, Vishnukumar Raju, with the connivance of the YSRCP leaders, the TDP State unit president K Atchannaidu and the BJP Andhra Pradesh chief official spokesperson Lanka Dinakar on Monday made an appeal to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to initiate measures to immediately withdraw these cases.

In a letter addressed to the CEO with a copy sent to Avinash Kumar, the Principal Secretary who is in-charge of the State in the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi, the State Director General of Police (DGP), the special general observer of the poll panel and the Chief Electoral officer, Andhra Pradesh, the TDP State unit president Atchannaidu and Lanka Dinakar said that these attempts to file cases against the media personnel only amounts to muzzling the Press freedom.

Observing that the intervention of the poll panel to initiate stern measures certainly yielded fruitful results to check post-poll violence to some extent, Atchannaidu said in the letter that the attack that took place at Kancharapalem in Visakhapatnam in which two women sustained grievous injuries for not voting for the YSRCP was highly condemnable.

Atchannaidu and Lanka Dinakar said the media personnel were attacked by the YSRCP leaders as they performed their duty of filing the reports on the attack. They alleged that the local police in connivance with the YSRCP leaders filed cases against the media personnel.

They said in the letter, “We request you to arrange for withdrawal of these cases against the media personnel and Vishnukumar Raju and take action against the police officers who allowed the post-poll violence.”