Amaravati, Aug 6 : A court in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district sent YSR Congress Party leader and former MLA Shaik Mohammed Mustafa to judicial custody for 14 days in an alleged kidnap case.
The former MLA from Guntur East was arrested in Gujarat by a police team from Nuzvid two days ago.
The police produced the former MLA before a court in Vadodara, secured a transit warrant, and brought him back to Nuzvid. He was produced before a magistrate early Thursday.
After the magistrate remanded Mustafa to judicial remand, he was shifted to Nellore Sub-Jail.
Mustafa’s son Mubashir alias Basheer, who was arrested at Hyderabad airport on Tuesday, was remanded to judicial custody on Wednesday.
They were booked for kidnapping a tobacco trader’s son and two others following a dispute over a tobacco procurement transaction.
A case was registered against them for ransom, abduction, criminal intimidation, and physical assault. Charges were also invoked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as the complainant belonged to an SC community.
Mustafa, who has a tobacco godown in Guntur, procures tobacco from traders. K. Suryachandram, a trader from Eluru district, used to sell tobacco to the former MLA. Recently, the trader had stopped selling tobacco to him due to the price drop.
On July 27, when Suryachandram’s son Abhi, driver Balaraju and G. Durga Rao were coming to Guntur to sell tobacco to another company, they were stopped at Nuzvid by Mustafa’s son Basheer and his aides. Demanding payment of dues, they allegedly kidnapped the three men and seized the tobacco-laden vehicle.
Suryachandram claimed that when his son informed him, he spoke to Mustafa over the phone. The former MLA allegedly threatened that if he failed to come to his godown in Guntur with the money, he would not be able to see his son.
The trader lodged a complaint with the police. His son and two others were later released by kidnappers. Mustafa and his son were absconding while their aides involved in the kidnapping surrendered before police.
YSR Congress Party has condemned the police action against Mustafa and his son and termed it a political vendetta by the TDP-led coalition government.
YSRCP president and former Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that Mustafa and his son had been implicated in a kidnapping case despite having handed over the person concerned to the police.
Andhra court sends YSRCP leader Mustafa to judicial custody in kidnap case
