Senior YSRCP leader Jogi Ramesh and his brother have been apprehended by officials in connection with the alleged manufacture and sale of spurious liquor in Andhra Pradesh. Ramesh and his younger brother, Jogi Ramu, were detained by Excise department officials on Sunday morning before being presented before a local magistrate's court later that day.
“Both the accused were arrested after duly explaining the cause of their arrest as illegal manufacture, transport, import and sale of spurious liquor,” stated the remand report, which was shared by an official.
The pair were arrested under the Andhra Pradesh Excise Act, 1968, the Andhra Pradesh Prohibition Act, 1995, and various other statutory provisions. Sources indicated they appeared in a local court late on Sunday. Their arrests follow the confiscation of evidence pointing to a well-organised operation involving the manufacture, distribution, and sale of fake alcohol across multiple locations within the state.
Meanwhile, YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy harshly criticised Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over Ramesh's arrest, deeming the action “illegal and vindictive.”
Reddy alleged that Naidu was exposed after his government's own fake liquor factories were revealed. “The arrest of Ramesh was illegal and politically vindictive, Naidu is misusing power, he had resorted to shameless conspiracies to deflect blame and harass opposition leaders,” Reddy declared in a post on X late on Sunday.
The former Chief Minister further claimed that the fake liquor seized by officials actually belonged to individuals closely associated with Naidu’s administration, including those who stood as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidates for MLA. According to Reddy, this illicit alcohol was being sold through private shops, "belt shops" (unauthorised alcohol outlets), and permit rooms operated by TDP officials and workers under Naidu’s protection.
He went on to claim that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the liquor case is entirely under Naidu’s control and, therefore, cannot be expected to conduct an impartial inquiry into the allegations. Reddy suggested the government engineered the arrest as a distraction from the recent Kasibugga temple stampede, which resulted in nine fatalities, and the devastation caused by Cyclone 'Montha'.
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