YCP goons set fire to Kopparru youth: ex Minister
Dalit youth torched just for objecting to abusive remarks
Non-stop attacks on Dalits in AP since 2019
AMARAVATI: TDP former minister Nakka Ananda Babu on Wednesday urged the Chairpersons of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to take up a detailed probe into the non-stop attack on Dalits in Andhra Pradesh since 2019.
In separate letters sent to the NHRC and NCSC Chairpersons here, Ananda Babu stressed the need for a comprehensive inquiry following the latest violent attack causing bleeding head injuries to a Dalit youth in Guntur district in AP. The weaker sections were under constant and serious threat in the past two and half years.
The TDP leader said that Potturi Venkatanarayana, a native of Kopparru village in Pedakurapadu, was set afire by the miscreants for just asking them not to make derogatory comments against the opposition TDP leaders. Ever since the present Government assumed power in 2019, Andhra Pradesh has become an epicenter of attacks against Dalits. Ananda Babu said several atrocities, attacks, threats and harassment of Dalits in Andhra Pradesh were time and again brought to the notice of the Commission. Despite this, violent attacks were continuing with Dalits suffering and living under constant threat to life and property.
The former minister said that the latest in the series of attacks against Dalits took place on December 20, 2021 at around 10.30 PM. Potturi Venkatanarayana, aged about 32 years, has been working as a cook and has two children – a girl child aged about 3 years and a boy child aged about 1 and half years.
Ananda Babu recalled that Venkatanarayana, belonging to the SC Mala community, was attacked when he was returning from Pedakurapadu to his parents’ house in Kopparru village. On the way, near Boyapalem, he stopped at a wine shop. He just objected when he heard a group of YSRCP goons abusing Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders without any provocation.
The TDP leader said that upon this, the ruling YSRCP goons attacked Venkatanarayana with liquor bottles and injured him grievously. When Venkatanarayana lost consciousness, they set him on fire and ran away. Venkatanarayana lay down there in an unconscious state with no help from anywhere the whole night. Help arrived only on the morning of December 21, 2021 and he was immediately admitted into the Government General Hospital, Guntur.
Ananda Babu said that in this backdrop, it is strongly appealed to the NHRC and the NCSC to institute comprehensive inquiries into the continuing attacks against Dalits in AP in the past two and half years. It is important that the NHRC and the NCSC take immediate and prompt action in order to ensure that fundamental rights of the people in Andhra Pradesh are restored.
