Former Tadipatri MLA and Telugu Desam Party leader J.C. Prabhakar Reddy and his son J. Ashmit Reddy were arrested from their Jubilee Hills residence on Saturday and produced before a judge, who remanded them in 14 days of judicial custody.
Based on complaints from the Transport Department officials of producing fake documents while registering lorry-trailers, the Anantapur police team led by Tadipatri DSP A. Srinivasulu made searches in their house for two hours from 2 a.m. and shifted them in a car to Anantapur I Town police station by 11 a.m.
The Transport Department had filed 27 FIRs with the police pertaining to purchase of 154 BS-III-compliant lorry-trailers in scrap from Ashok Leyland and getting them registered as BS-IV vehicles at Kohima in Nagaland by producing fake invoices, insurance certificates and police no-objection certificates.
Anantapur Deputy Transport Commissioner N. Sivaram Prasad had filed complaints against the directors of Jatadhara Industries Private Limited, J. Ashmit Reddy and J.C. Uma Reddy (wife of Mr. Prabhakar), and C. Gopal Reddy & Co. director Gopal Reddy.
“As part of investigation, the police found that the ‘Police NOC’ provided by the representatives of the companies were fake and produced by some persons on demand from Mr. Prabhakar and Mr. Ashmit Reddy. Based on the assertions of those people, the police registered cases of cheating and forgery and arrested the duo,” Deputy Superintendent of Police G. Veeraghava Reddy told The Hindu .
After the duo were produced before the judge at 5.30 p.m., they were shifted to Reddipalli District Jail.
Earlier, after the formalities in the I Town police station, Mr. Prabhakar Reddy was taken to the Government General Hospital here and a general health check-up was done before he was taken to the judge’s residence.
TDP cadres agitated
The arrests created a lot of bitterness among the Telugu Desam Party leaders and cadre and they thronged the I Town police station led by party district president B.K. Parthasarathy, Bandaru Sravani and others. The news of J.C. Prabhakar’s arrest spread like wildfire and people gathered in large numbers wherever the police had taken the father and son duo to.
