Madanapalle fire incident takes crucial turn

Tirupati: In an interesting turn of developments relating to the Madanapalle Sub-Collector’s office fire incident, police and CID sleuths have conducted searches in former Madanapalle YSRCP MLA Nawaz Basha’s residence on Sunday.

Nawaz Basha represented the constituency during 2019-24 and did not get the ticket in the recent Assembly polls while his brother Shajahan Basha was elected as MLA on the TDP ticket.

Police reached his home on Sunday morning and served notices there summoning Nawaz for questioning. However, the former MLA was away in Bengaluru. When police contacted him, Nawaz told them that he would return immediately and make himself available for questioning. Later in the evening, he reached his residence at Madanapalle while the police searches continued.

In another significant development, police have also turned their attention to Sashikant, said to be the personal assistant of former Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy. He belongs to Madanapalle. It was learnt that searches were held by a team led by CI Ramesh at his residence at Ayyappa Society in Hyderabad since Saturday night.

The searches are said to have concluded on Sunday afternoon while police seized a large number of documents and other material in boxes. However, Sashikant was not available during the time of searches.

Following the incident on July 21 night in which 2,440 files were burnt while 700 other files could be saved, police have so far questioned several suspects. Former RDOs Hariprasad and Murali along with a few staff members of the Sub-Collector’s office were reportedly still in the custody of police though they have not made any arrests so far.

On Saturday, they summoned Madanapalle municipal vice-chairman Jinka Venkata Chalapathi and a senior journalist B Akkualappa in connection with the case for questioning after which they were sent to their homes.

Meanwhile, Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) R P Sisodia submitted his preliminary report to the State government on Saturday in Amaravati. He made it clear that an electric short circuit was not the reason behind the fire mishap at the Sub-Collector’s office. Some persons have deliberately caused the incident and to facilitate this act, the repair works for CC cameras were also not carried out.

He mentioned that about 14,000 acres of dotted lands were regularised in the name of private persons and to cover these details the files were burnt.

Sisodia suspected the hands of Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy’s PA and other close associates in the incident. He recommended for the suspension of former RDOs Hariprasad and Murali along with senior assistant Gowtham Teja.