Rebel YSR Congress Party MP Kanumuru Raghu Rama Krishna Raju, who was
arrested yesterday on sedition charges after he appealed to a special CBI court to cancel
Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's bail, was left disappointed today after the Andhra Pradesh High Court declined to grant bail to the MP.
The court simply stated that it would not interfere in the matter, and asked Raju to approach a lower court with his bail plea.
The sleuths of the CID arrested Raju on charges of inciting hatred among different communities in the state, resorting to sedition, and attacking dignitaries of the Jagan regime, from his Hyderabad residence yesterday after a case was filed against him on the basis of an enquiry report of the CID DIG.
He has been a prominent critic of the Jagan government for the past year, and a police release on his arrest claimed that a preliminary probe had indeed proved that Raju was "regularly and systematically" using his speeches to stir up communal disharmony in AP and to attack the Jagan regime.
The statement also added that the MP's comments against the government would erode the faith of the public in it.
The arrest is likely to be seen, by Jagan's detractors as the CM's way of silencing those speaking up against his government.