Hyderabad, October 03: Andhra Pradesh Government yesterday began the process of withdrawing cases of non-serious nature registered against pro and anti-Telangana agitators since November last year.
State Home Minister P Sabita Reddy told media here today that 1,171 cases were registered in all against 5,374 persons, including students, in connection with the agitations for and against the division of the state.
Of the total cases 982 were registered in the Telangana region alone. The number of cases in coastal Andhra region and Rayalseema were 189 and 685 respectively. In all over 34,000 people were taken into preventive custody in connection with 2,308 demonstrations in all the three regions, she said.
“Only those cases that are non-serious in nature will be withdrawn while grave ones like burning of Road Transport Corporation buses, burning\damaging of public and private properties and attack on police will remain,” the Home Minister asserted.
She said a clear picture on the exact number of cases to be withdrawn would emerge only after a fortnight.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram announced on December 9 last year that the cases filed against students and other agitators ever since TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao sat on an indefinite fast would be withdrawn.
Chidambaram’s statement, in a way, sparked off further violence across the state with the pro and anti-division forces taking hardened positions on the statehood issue.
For many months, the state government did not take any decision on withdrawal of cases even as the agitations continued in the three regions.
But with mounting political pressure, the government asked Home Minister Sabita Reddy and her predecessor K Jana Reddy to examine the issue along with the state Director General of Police.
The three met on a few occasions in the recent days and listed out the cases booked against agitators in Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions.
DGP K Aravinda Rao made it clear that there was no question of withdrawing “grave” cases.
“History suggests that some people against whom criminal cases were withdrawn in the past went on to become hardcore criminals, encouraged by the leniency they were given. This should not be allowed to happen,” the DGP observed.
–Agencies