Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday announced setting up of a special court to try the 'call money racket' cases, which rocked the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly for the second day on Friday. The ruling TDP and main Opposition YSR Congress engaged in a heated war of words in the House with opposition leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy hitting out at the ruling party over the alleged involvement of some TDP MLAs in the racket. His allegations were strongly denied by the ruling party.
More than 50 members of YSR Congress, including Jaganmohan Reddy, were suspended from Assembly on Friday morning after they staged a protest to press for a debate on 'call money racket', stalling proceedings in the House. The Opposition members were suspended till the conclusion of a debate on Constitution and contribution of Dr B R Ambedkar in its drafting. Some of them were evicted by marshals after they refused to leave the House. The debate on the issue of Constitution concluded in the afternoon.
'Call money' refers to a mode of private lending where loan is made available instantly at borrower's doorstep but at exorbitant rates of interest and the lender can demand repayment anytime over a call. As the House took up debate on the racket, Naidu made a statement on the issue. Noting that the government took a serious note of the racket, he said police conducted raids on private money lenders across the state.
Police have lodged 227 cases against money lenders, who were reportedly collecting exorbitant rate of interest. Of these, five cases involved sexual harassment of borrowers along with charging of high interest rate, Naidu said. "So far 188 accused have been arrested which include the sympathisers of YSRCP (65), TDP (20), Congress (12), CPI (6), BJP (4), Lok Satta (2), CPM (1) and others 78," he said.
Observing that a judicial inquiry has already been ordered into the racket, he said no one will be spared. "We are also going to establish a special court at Vijayawada to try cases under Nirbhaya Act (related to issue of sexual exploitation) and appoint Special Public Prosecutor for speedy disposal of the cases, so that justice is be done to the victims at the earliest," the Chief Minister noted.
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