Amaravati: Even as the controversy around the tragic suicide of the Muslim family due to alleged harassment by the police in Nandyal started subsiding, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday came in the defense of the arrested policemen.
Condemning the outrage over the suicide, the state BJP president Somu Veerraju said that the police cannot be blamed for the death of Abdul Salaam and family. “The police have done their duty in interrogating Salaam, as he was a suspect in the theft case. Can you arrest the chief minister, if the farmers of the state commit suicide in distress?” Veerraju asked.
Auto-rickshaw driver Abdul Salam had died by suicide, along with his wife Noor Jahan, daughter Salma and son Khalandar by coming under a goods train near Kaulur village in Kurnool district on November 3. A selfie video of the family came to light on November 7, in which Salam alleged harassment by Nandyal police in a theft case, in which he was not involved.
Ever since the ugly politicking over the tragic suicide has become the talk of the town. While Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu held the Jagan’s government’s ‘Police Raj’ responsible, the ruling YSR Congress party sought to neutralize the impact of the suicides by suspending the cops responsible for the incident.
BJP, on the other hand, added to the controversy saying that both the parties are only politicizing the Nandyal suicide incident. “Are they interested only in Muslim votes? Are they not indulging in communal politics?” he asked.
Further, the BJP president said when his party raised the issue of injustice to the Hindus and questioned the irregularities in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, it was being criticized for doing Hindutva politics. “Why? Are Hindus not human beings? Are they worried about only Muslim lives? Why are they doing vote-bank politics? Why are we branded communal and given Hindutva stigma?” he asked.