Who Will Take Responsibility For Kotaiah’s Death?
Kondaveedu/Guntur: A tweet by YSR Congress Party Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy forced the TDP government to get into damage control mode on Kondaveedu farmer Kotaiah's death. Expressing his anguish over the death of a poor papaya farmer Koteswara Rao / Kotaiah, a farmer from Yadlapadu mandal, Kothapalem in Kondaveedu in Guntur district, YS Jagan blamed Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for the death of the famer, whose farmland was forcibly occupied by the state police for establishing a temporary control room during his visit to Kondaveedu Fort in Guntur district.
Also Read: Chandrababu Responsible For Kondaveedu Farmer’s Death: YS Jagan
The State government tried to do its damage control exercise through various media channels where Guntur SP, Rajasekhar Babu's alleged that Kotaiah committed suicide even before the AP chief minister toured the area and that the police tried to get to him to the hospital. A video clip of a police hurriedly carrying the farmer on his shoulder to a truck was flashed and interestingly the clip stops there and is shown on replay. What happened after that is not shown. However, the fact was that he was left at the second check post, after which some farmers had to carry Kotaiah to the hospital, but it was already too late, as the farmer had already died.
The police say he consumed pesticide, but the farmers say that there were no traces of pesticide in his farm and there were bruises on his face because the police had thrashed him, an allegation which Narasaraopet DSP D Ravi Varma refuted.
If that was not all TDP Minister Nara Lokesh took to twitter saying that that YSRCP was trying to politicise the death of a farmer and tweeted the same footage of the police officials carrying the farmer's body and the helipad site photos. So we now have the police top brass explaining their version of what happened followed by the TDP leaders counter tweet and an ex gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh announced by the Chief Minister for the farmers family.
Acting upon the directions of party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's orders, a fact-finding team from the YSR Congress Party which was headed by Leader of Opposition in AP legislative Council, Ummareddy Venkateswarulu along with a few senior members visited Kondaveedu on Wednesday to probe the tragic death of Kotaiah. In fact they were also not allowed to enter the village in their vehicles by the local police but undeterred they walked to the farmer's house and spoke to his son and other members of the family.
Also Read: BC Farmer Kotaiah Death: Villagers Pick Holes In Police Version
Speaking to the press after this Ummareddy Venkateswarulu said that there were so many lapses in what had happened. There was no proper Panchnama conducted, a post mortem report is yet to be given and he was also told that an RTO and a DSP had come to their house and offered them Rs 3 lakhs and asked them not go public about this episode.
There were many facets to this case, if he had taken pesticide, the symptoms would have been different and that he had died within half an hour , which shows the government's desperate measure to cover up the case, he said.
Another unfortunate thing was that Chandrababu had conducted the meet in Kondaveedu for political reasons and had he not come there this unfortunate incident would have been averted and a family would still have their father alive, he said. The YSRCP party has come forward to be of some support to the family and gave Rs 10 lakhs to the farmer's family, but he also clarified that this amount was nothing in comparison to the loss that the family has suffered. We will not leave the case and we will find out the truth whether he committed suicide or was due to the injuries he suffered because of the police action, he reiterated. The fact-finding team would request the state police to conduct a thorough inquiry into the farmer's death and also order for a judicial probe into this matter, he said.
Another interesting point was that the Chandrababu himself had admitted that his death could have been due to the police troubling him and contradicting the CM's statement the Police say that he had committed suicide. So who is telling the truth? The farmers say that Kotaiah had called for help about the police occupying his farm and this was at 10: 30 in the morning. By 11:30, he was found dead.
So what happened between 10: 30 and 11:30 in the morning of February 19 is something which the police are desperately trying to conceal...
