Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam Commissioner Of Police (CP) Mahesh Chandra Ladda and the Home Ministry of the State of Andhra Pradesh have been in the eye of storm in the recent times. This has been the case after the callous attitude towards the attack on the YSRCP Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at the VIP lounge of the Vizag Airport on 25 October, 2018. It was apparent that a deliberate attempt was being made to dissipate the case.

Initially the Vizag CP, Mahesh Ladda said that the knife attack on YSRCP chief, Jagan was carried out by the accused Srinivas just for publicity. The SIT that was constituted also did nothing as part of its investigation and within one month closed the SIT office and wound up the case. At this juncture, the High Court intervened and the case was transferred to the Centre at the request of YS Jagan after a petition was filed. The case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as per High Court’s directions which came as shocker to the state government and the Police.

The NIA registered a fresh case on January 1, 2019 and came to Visakhapatnam for further investigation. CP Ladda in a hurried manner convened a presser on January 2, only to say that the attack was done only to gain publicity. Just when the NIA team arrived, he went on leave for four days citing personal reasons and was unavailable to the NIA.It may be noted that Ladda was also on deputation with the NIA in 2010 for a brief period.

Also Read: AP Police’s Non-cooperation To NIA Probe On YS Jagan Attack

The four days extended to a week and remained incommunicado as he stayed back in Rajasthan for a few more days. This continued till the case was transferred to Vijayawada and the accused Srinivasa Rao was transferred to Vijaywada jail. Ladda's unavailability to the NIA team has triggered more conspiracy theories.

He resurfaced since Friday after the case was transferred to Vijayawada showing how half-heartedly the Andhra Pradesh Police was dealing with the murder attempt on a prominent state politician and leader of the Opposition.

Also Read: NIA Takes Custody Of Accused In YS Jagan Attack Case