AP Liquor Syndicates: Nunna Venkata Ramana's U-turn

The sensational AP liquor syndicates case took an interesting turn with the arrested syndicate member Nunna Venkata Ramana taking a u-turn on his confession. Earlier, he alleged that he paid a bribe of Rs. 10 lakh to excise minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana. On Wednesday, Ramana backtracked and said that he made that statement under pressure from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials. He said he was not even a liquor trader as alleged by tht ACB, but a farmer.

In his bail petition, Nunna Venkata Ramana said that the ACB personnel subjected him to third degree interrogation methods to obtain a confession that the excise minister was a recipient of bribes. Even though ACB officials showed in the FIR that he was arrested on February 3 during raids on his syndicate offices, Ramana alleged in his petition that he was detained on February 1. "I was not involved in any liquor trade. I am a farmer. I cultivate my land in Warangal. ACB officials deliberately implicated me in the liquor mafia," he said in the petition.

Ramana, who is currently lodged in the Cherlapally central prison, pleaded in his petition that the court should consider taking action against those ACB officials who subjected him to third degree methods. "ACB officials harassed me mentally and physically. Besides, they threatened me with dire consequences if I did not name the minister," he said. Nunna also alleged that ACB officials wrote out his 'confessional statement' and took his signature on it and submitted to court. The ACB court posted the hearing on Nunna's bail petition to March 1.