Andhra minister gets threat call, cops detect detonators
By IANSSunday, January 30, 2011
HYDERABAD - A day after a minister in Andhra Pradesh received threat calls, police Sunday seized three detonators from Mahabubnagar district.
The devices were seized on Izza-Gawal Road in the district, where Information and Public Relations Minister D.K. Aruna was to participate Monday in the “Racchabanda” programme launched by the government to redress public grievances on the spot.
The recovery was made after an anonymous caller told the minister Saturday that she would be targeted.
A police official said the detonators were not powerful enough to claim any life. The police were looking into all angles, including the possible involvement of Maoists, who had gunned down Aruna’s father and brother a few years ago, the official said.
The police were trying to find out if pro-Telangana supporters were behind the threat and the detonators planted on the road.
The minister last week faced protests in the district while participating in “Racchabanda”.
Aruna was scheduled to visit Izza town to attend the programme Monday. The groups fighting for separate statehood to Telangana are opposing the government’s grievances redressal programme in the region, saying it is aimed at weakening the movement for separate state.
She told reporters that she received a call while returning to Hyderabad Saturday.
The caller told her that she would be targeted and that detonators had already been planted. The police took up the investigations and traced the call to a public telephone booth. The search on Izza Road led to recovery of the detonators.
“Police are investigating from all angles because a person who has planted detonators will not call but it is also possible that it was only to create a fear. However, I am not afraid of such threats,” Aruna said.
The minister’s father and then Congress legislator C. Narsi Reddy and her brother Venkateshwar Reddy along with eight others were gunned down by Maoists in Mahabubnagar district on the Independence Day in 2005.
The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist had earlier threatened to kill Aruna, her father and brother, blaming them for sale of illicit liquor in the district.
