It may appear strange, but the leaders and cadres belonging to the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi or Bharatiya Janata Party in Telangana, who are arrested in various cases filed by the Congress government led by chief minister A Revanth Reddy are able to get bail easily and quickly.
Compared to them, the leaders and cadre of YSR Congress party, the main opposition in Andhra Pradesh, are virtually struggling to get bail in several cases and are forced to languish in jails for days and even weeks together.
Take the recent case of BRS legislator Padi Kaushik Reddy, who was arrested in an alleged extortion case at Subedari in Warangal, but he got released within two hours, thanks to the powerful legal support extended by the BRS.
A case was filed under multiple serious sections, including attempt to murder, against 19 people for allegedly attacking the office of Maha TV.
Yet the judge dismissed those charges, stating it was merely an act of political protest, and granted them bail, asking them to attend court only when necessary.
But in Andhra Pradesh, the situation is different.
The YSRCP leaders and their supporters who are thrown behind the bars in one case or the other, are finding it difficult to come out of the jail on bail.
The police are simply arresting the YSRCP people under different sections, without even bothering to serve them notices under section 41A notice (a legal notice under the Criminal Procedure Code requiring appearance before investigation).
Every single person, regardless of the case, is being remanded and sent to police custody — and that too, routinely.
So, where does the real fault lie?
Is it because the legal system is routinely remanding the YSRCP leaders to judicial custody or the failure of the YSRCP legal team in putting up a strong defence or taking up the case on their behalf seriously.
Except in a few cases like that of senior journalist and Sakshi anchor Kommineni Srinivas Rao, where YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy arranged a senior Supreme Court advocate by spending lakhs of rupees to get him bail, in most other cases, the YSRCP legal team is not putting up a tough fight.
Even with regard to the hit-and-run case involving Jagan Mohan Reddy, he had to depend on senior lawyers to argue his case in the court and manage to get the reprieve, albeit temporarily.
When an attack on a media channel happens, there seems to be two sets of standards — one for Andhra Pradesh, and another for Telangana. In Andhra Pradesh, any accused is kept in jail for 45 to 60 days irrespective of the charges.
But in Telangana, even if someone smashes windows, or runs fake propaganda using non-existent pink worm hoaxes on social media, they are spared judicial remand. Where is the fault?