AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy's sister Y S Sharmila hints at floating new political outfit in Telangana
Hyderabad, Feb 9: Y S Sharmila, sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Tuesday held talks with her late father's sympathisers here, triggering speculations of her possible political entry in Telangana.
Responding to the development, the ruling YSRC in Andhra Pradesh said while Reddy and Sharmila do not have differences, the siblings only have "differences of opinion" over her political foray in this state.
Sharmila's father and late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, widely known as YSR, was the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh from 2004 to 2009.
The Congress leader died in a chopper crash in September 2009.
There have been rumours doing the rounds on social media over the past few days that Sharmila plans to start a political party in Telangana without her brother's intervention.
She is believed to be in touch with some prominent political leaders, who were closely associated with late Rajasekhara Reddy, eliciting their suggestions and opinion on bringing "Rajanna Rajyam" (a state envisaged by the late Reddy) in Telangana.
"I want to understand the ground realities and to take their suggestions and the information they have...I called people from Nalgonda district. This is just a connection (with them)."
"The meetings will be held with people from every district," she told the media after the meeting.
Asked if she would launch a political party, Sharmila said "there is no Rajanna Rajyam now. Why should it not come?.
My objective is to establish Rajanna Rajyam," she said.
To a query, she said, "Jagan Mohan Reddy is doing his job in AP and I will do mine in Telangana."
Sharmila and her mother Vijayamma had vigorously campaigned for the YSR Congress during the general elections in 2019.
However, after the party clinched a landslide victory and Jagan took over the reins, Sharmila was not seen much in public.
Responding to Sharmila's possible political entry in Telangana, YSRC senior leader and Advisor to the AP Government, Sajjala Ramakrishna, said Jagan and Sharmila do not have differences, but only "differences of opinion" on her venturing into Telangana politics.
"As a daughter of Rajasekhar Reddy she has leadership qualities," Reddy said, addressing a press conference near Vijayawada.
"People at various levels tried to convince her not to get into Telangana politics, but she took a decision...she has to face the political consequences," he said.
He opined that since YSRC decided not to be active in other states, including Telangana, she may have independently decided to fill the gap by going there.
The K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtria Samiti (TRS), has been ruling the state, which came into existence in 2014, winning two back to back assembly elections.
Sharmila met sympathisers of Rajasekhara Reddy from the united Nalgonda district at the family's residence at Lotus Pond here.
Konda Ragava Reddy, a senior YSRC leader of the Telangana unit, told reporters that Sharmila will float a political party and take the ideology to the masses.
According to him the announcement will be made at a public meeting at Chevella in Rangareddy District in Telangana in the coming days.
Several banners with portraits of Sharmila and Rajasekhar Reddy were erected at the residence.
Jagan's image was conspicuously missing in the banners and flex boards.
Hundreds of people gathered at the residence and cheered as she came out.
They burst crackers and shouted slogans like "YSR johar" in memory of the deceased leader.
A YSR Congress worker from Utnoor in Adilabad said he strongly wants Sharmila to float a party in order to bring "Rajanna Rajyam" (Rajasekhar Reddy's regime) in Telangana also.
Though the YSRC has a presence in Telangana, it did not contest in the last general elections.
Sharmila undertook a 'Padayatra' when Jagan was imprisoned in connection with a quid pro quo case in 2012.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
