*YSRCP slams arrest of former MLA Mustafa, calls it political vendetta against minorities*

Tadepalli, August 4: YSRCP leaders strongly condemned the arrest of former Guntur East MLA Shaik Mohammed Mustafa, calling it a clear case of political vendetta and harassment of minorities by the Chandrababu Naidu-led coalition government. Party Minority Wing leaders, along with former minister and Guntur district YSRCP president Ambati Rambabu, said Mustafa was arrested from Gujarat in a false case after he sought legal protection from police harassment. They questioned why Andhra Pradesh Police travelled to Gujarat to arrest a former legislator who had approached the courts, while refusing to act on complaints filed by YSRCP leaders.
The leaders said Mustafa had only brought to the police a businessman who had taken advance money for a tobacco transaction and was attempting to flee without supplying the agreed goods. Instead of delivering justice, police registered kidnapping, attempt-to-murder and other serious charges against Mustafa and his son to ensure denial of bail. They questioned how a person produced before a police station could later become the subject of a kidnapping case.
Guntur City YSRCP president Noori Fatima said her father, brother and several family members had been implicated in false cases and that her cousin was detained before Mustafa’s arrest, while even his wife, an IT employee, was booked for questioning the detention. MLC Isaq Basha and Minority Wing Working President Hafeez Khan said the government was selectively targeting YSRCP leaders and minorities through fabricated cases while ignoring similar complaints against ruling party leaders. Reaffirming full support to Mustafa and his family, YSRCP declared that neither intimidation nor politically motivated arrests would silence the party’s fight for justice and constitutional rights.