Senior leader and TDP’s Rajya Sabha candidate Varla Ramaiah came down heavily on DGP Gautam Sawang for the arrest of party leader and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Vishakapatnam airport when he visited the port city on February 27 for the party’s Praja Chaitanya Yatra and wondered if the DGP was working for YSRCP or for the welfare of the people.

Instead of working in the larger interests of protecting and safeguarding the people, the Andhra Pradesh police under Gautam Sawang had become a political tool to further the political agenda of the ruling dispensation. He demanded that the DGP tender his resignation owning moral responsibility for the arrest of TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. “The High Court read out the police manual, CrPC 151 to the DGP when he deposed before the court. Such a thing never happened in the past where a court had to read out CrPC 151 to a DGP. Gautam Sawang should be ashamed for the arrest of our party president Chandrababu Naidu,” Varla Ramaiah hit out at a press conference on Friday.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday pulled up Gautam Sawang questioning him why notices were served to Naidu under Section 151 and why no action was taken against the officers who violated the law in issuing the notices. In his deposition before the court, Sawang had admitted that Naidu’s arrest was not in the spirit of Sec.151(1) and that he would take action against the officers responsible as per the court directive.