A huge political storm was triggered in Telangana after a raid by Cyberabad Police during a party at the farmhouse of the brother-in-law of BRS working president KT Rama Rao.
While the brother-in-law Raj Pakala was booked for possessing liquor in quantities above permissible limits without an excise license, a guest was arrested for testing positive for cocaine use.
While the BRS blamed the Congress government led by Revanth Reddy of conspiring to trap Rao who has been aggressively attacking the government for failings, Union Minister for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleged the Congress was shielding the BRS leader and his family members and demanded CCTV footage of the search.
Meanwhile, when the police went to search the residence of the BRS working president, allegedly without warrant party leaders, MLAs and activists obstructed their way and two leaders were arrested.
According to police, on the intervening night of 26/27 October a raid was organised by Narsingi police, special operation team and excise officials at a farmhouse in Janwada after receiving information about a rave party.
There were 21 men and 14 women at the party where liquor was served. No permission was sought from the excise department for serving liquor and seven unauthorised foreign liquor bottles were found along with 10 Indian ones.
Drug tests were conducted with kits and a person called Vijay Madduri tested positive for cocaine. According to the FIR, the women refused to cooperate for the drug test. However, no drugs were found in the entire premise which was searched by sniffer dogs.
The FIR read, “He said his owner Pakala Raj has one software company, in the name of ETG software company at Nanakramguda and Vijay is the CEO of that company. Moreover, he is also having one own company in the name of Fusion AIX software company, he acts as CEO (sic). Occasionally, they used to get together on weekends and used to consume drugs and play with poker coins… Raj Pakala asked him to consume cocaine which he had with him, Vijay agreed and consumed cocaine.”
Meanwhile, Union Minister Bandi Sanjay alleged, “The Congress government in Telangana is just pretending to enforce the law but is actually protecting the BRS bigwigs. The raid at Janwada farmhouse is merely the tip of the iceberg. A proper search would reveal the truth – even a novice knows drugs don’t simply vanish. Congress should not dilute the case – by giving predictable statements.”
He further demanded, “Seize the passports of all high profile individuals involved, secure their tower locations and release every piece of CCTV footage. We call for immediate arrests with absolute no leniency, no escape routes.”
BRS leader Dasoju Sravan Kumar said: “They (Congress) are trying to cover up the problems faced by the public and corruption issues by spreading false propaganda about drugs and rave parties…The fact that Revanth Reddy is acting as if these are the priorities of the government is a proof of his narrowmindedness and the petty politics that he believes in.”
The BRS leaders claimed that it was a party to celebrate a new property ahead of Diwali.