MLA's son arrested in car crash case

GUNTUR : With pressure mounting about mishandling of car racing case, police finally arrested TDP MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao’s son Siddartha on Thursday. A special police team from Chilakaluripet picked up Siddartha from his residence in Vijayawada and produced him in the local court. Police have also arrested Siddartha’s friend Sivaram who was driving the other car involved in the crash near Edlapadu on Sunday.
However, judge of junior civil court, Ch.V.N Srinivasa Rao granted bail to both the accused immediately after their production. Police booked Siddartha and his friend Sivaram under section 304 (a) and 337 of IPC, both bailable at police station. Despite uproar over the failure of the police in booking the youth in car racing as the car crash led to the killing of a youth, the police slapped simple charges allegedly due to the pressures from the ruling party leaders. In fact, police did not even book the legislator’s son for fleeing from the scene of offence without informing the police. Although, MLA had been denying about his son involved in the car racing, neither the MLA nor the police failed to answer as to why Siddartha was hiding the police for the past five days.
According to locals of Edlapadu, the cars involved in the crash were going at a speed of more than 140-150kmph on the national highway-9. Sources said that Siddartha and his friends launched the race right in Vijayawada and ended in the crash by the time they reached Edlapadu. Sources said that even the transport department officials suspected that the vehicles must be above 120kmph after inspecting the accident met vehicles. However, the local break inspector (transport department), Amar Naik said that they could not record the speed of the vehicles after the mishap as they were jammed. Meanwhile, toyata fortuner vehicle (crushed in the mishap) owner S Subbaraju (Kamath Subbaraju) reported to have met MLA Umamaheswar Rao on Thursday and enquired about the health of his son Siddartha who injured in the accident.
Sources said that Kamath Subbaraju, a contractor of Visakhapatnam reported to have gifted the luxury car to MLA's son recently. Raju had developed relationship with MLA Rao in order to broker peace with minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao of his home district. Minister Ganta reported to have ensured the bulldozing of an illegal structure owned by Subbaraju in Visakhapatnam for violating the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) rules recently. Raju reported to have networked with Umamaheswara Rao as he too belongs to Kapu community to which Ganta Srinivasa Rao belongs.
Speculation was also rife that Subbaraju reported to have sought the assistance of MLA Umamaheswara Rao in getting land purchased by him in Ibrahimpatnam registered in his favour. Sources said that the 30-acre land deal handled by Raju was landed in a dispute following the announcement of capital near Vijayawada.