State Social Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman Kumar on Tuesday accused the BRS leadership of politicising the recent jewellery showroom firing and robbery incident, and urged K. T. Rama Rao to exercise restraint in his public statements. He warned that “irresponsible and baseless remarks” could trigger a strong backlash from Congress cadre across the State.

The Minister made the remarks after visiting victims injured in the incident at a private hospital. Interacting with them, he described the robbery as an unfortunate event and said that preliminary investigation indicated a well-planned operation carried out by an inter-State criminal gang. He added that 15 special teams had been constituted and efforts were underway in coordination with other States to apprehend the accused.

Reacting strongly to political criticism, Laxman Kumar said it was unwarranted to link inter-State criminals with a constitutionally elected Chief Minister. He dismissed allegations that Congress leaders had failed to visit the victims, stating that party representatives had met them on the very day of the incident.

The Minister also questioned whether former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao would take responsibility for crimes committed during his tenure, and accused BRS leaders of attempting to derive political mileage from the situation.

Taking a swipe at Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar, he said the latter should focus on pursuing action in the Kaleshwaram case through a CBI probe instead of levelling allegations. He reiterated that the accused involved in the robbery would be arrested soon and brought to justice.