Though 8 of the 13 of his followers were released on bail on Saturday night and his health condition is fast deteriorating, Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham did not budge from his stand on continuing fast till all the accused in the Tuni arson cases were released. This indicates that Mr. Mudragada will continue his fast till Monday evening as the five will move bail petitions on Monday morning and will get the papers by evening, if everything goes smoothly in the respective courts at Kakinada and Pithapuram.
According to sources close to his family, Mr. Padmanabham has made it clear that he wants to take fluids, whenever it’s inevitable, but will continue the fast till his two main demands —releasing of his followers and lifting of cases — are met by the State government.
On Saturday evening, eight of the accused were released from the Rajamahendravaram Central Prison as they got bail on Friday. They are Palla Srihari, Chakkapalli Satyanaryana, Lakkimsetty Gopi Mahesh, Manikonda Pavan Kumar, Nakka Sai, Ganesula Rambabu ,Ganesula Lakshmana Rao and Gudala Manikanta.
Kurakula Pullayya was not released as he failed to fulfil bail formalities and Lagudu Srinivas was taken back into CBCID custody for fresh interrogation for three days.
Meanwhile, Kapu JAC leaders — Nall Vishnu, Akula Ramakrishna and Vasireddy Yesudasu — did not get bail on Saturday also and their advocate was asked to move the petition on Monday as the Magistrate at CBCID Court, Kakinada observed that he could not move bail petition on the same grounds within 24 hours.
Now, as the first demand is almost met by the State, the focus will be on the second demand of Mr. Padmanabham. The emissaries of the Government made it clear to the fasting leader that lifting of cases against all the 13 accused involved technicalities and that the courts had to take a decision on it.
