Stepping up its investigation into the kidnap and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes atrocity case against YSR Congress Party leader and former MLA Vallabhneni Vamsi, Andhra Pradesh police on Saturday, February 15, conducted searches at his residence in Hyderabad.
Police officers conducted searches at Vamsi's apartment in the Raidurgam area. They were reportedly searching for the former MLA's mobile phone.
When Vamsi was arrested from his residence in Hyderabad on February 13, police did not find his phone. The police have already approached the Special Court under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Vijayawada, seeking permission to seize Vamsi's phone. The investigators are hoping to build a strong case against him based on the phone data.
The police on February 13 seized the phone of Vamsi's aide and sent it to a forensic lab.
The investigating officers expect that call data from Vamsi's phone would help them nab other accused in the case.
A special team is already searching for absconding accused in the case.
The Vijayawada court on February 14 sent Vamsi and his followers Shivarama Krishna Prasad and Lakshmipathy to judicial remand for 14 days. The accused were sent to Vijayawada district jail.
The Patamata Police arrested Vamsi in Hyderabad and brought him to Vijayawada by road on Thursday, Februay 13.
He was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and threatening the complainant M Satyavardhan, a computer operator in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) office at Gannavaram, who is the complainant in the TDP office attack case that occurred in February 2023.
Vamsi and his followers, allegedly involved in the TDP office attack case, kidnapped Satyavardhan and threatened him to withdraw the case.
A case under Bharat Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 140 (1) (kidnap), 308, 351 (3) (criminal intimidation) and under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was booked against Vamsi and others.
Vamsi defected from the TDP to the YSRCP in 2020 and has since been a bitter critic of the TDP and its national president N Chandrababu Naidu.
After the TDP-led coalition came to power in June last year, Vamsi's house was attacked allegedly by TDP supporters.
Vamsi suffered defeat from the Gannavaram Assembly constituency. He was elected from the same seat in 2019 as a TDP candidate but later defected to YSRCP.