When Andhra Pradesh CID officials raided the house of retired IAS officer Laxminarayana in Hyderabad on Friday (today), who worked in CMO for several years in TDP government headed by Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, in connection with scam in AP Skill Development Corporation, it again raised a debate in political circles over why AP investigation agencies like CID, ACB conducts raids and arrests people only during weekends.

This has been the norm since the YSRCP government headed by Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy came to power in Andhra Pradesh in May 2019.

In all the cases which have political implications and which could target political rivals of YSRCP, the raids and arrests are happening only during weekends, namely, especially Friday and Saturday.

For instance, APCID raided the house of YSRCP rebel MP Raghurama Raju on May 14 this year, which was Friday.

The AP ACB raided the house of TDP senior leader and MLA Atchannaidu on June 12 this year, which was Saturday.

Similarly, AP police arrested TDP leader and former MLA JC Prabhakar Reddy on June 12 last year, which was a Friday.

The AP ACB arrested TDP senior leader and former MLA Dhulipalla Narendra on April 23 this year, which was a Friday.

The strategy seems to be simple. The courts have holidays on Saturday and Sunday and the arrested cannot move courts for bail if they are arrested during weekends.

The investigation agencies can have the custody of the accused for two to three days and they can extract the information in the three days in their custody and complete their task assigned by their higher-ups.