DRI urged to probe role of Jagan government, police

Mangalagiri: TDP former MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao on Wednesday urged the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to launch a thorough probe into Andhra Pradesh becoming a hub of heroin and other drug smuggling activities under the YSRCP government for the past two-and-a-half years.

Bonda Uma wanted the DRI probe the role of the AP government, AP police and the ruling YSRCP in the drug mafia activities. Sudhakar, a relative of a ruling YSRCP MLA, started the Vijayawada firm that was involved in the Rs 9,000 heroin smuggling case. He opened his firm in Satyanarayanapuram locality in Vijayawada after the YSRCP came to power. All these mafia activities were going on with the knowledge and active support of the ruling party's big boss, he alleged.

Addressing a press conference here, the TDP leader said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party had become a threat not just to AP but also to the national security as a whole. Minister Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani) should explain why the tainted firm involved in the Rs 9,000 crore heroin case opened its office in AP and not in other parts of the country. If the smuggling gangs hailed from another state, then why did the AP government and AP police allow them to open their operations in AP, he asked.

The former MLA asserted that their party would write letters and pass on all information relating to the drug mafia to the DRI officials in Delhi. There were reports that over 22 containers with heroin worth Rs 70,000 crore had already been brought to AP and then distributed to all 29 states from here. The DRI should probe all these details and nab the gangs which were carrying out large scale operations with the support of those in positions of power, he demanded.