The ‘Chalo Raj Bhavan’ call by the Congress on Thursday turned violent as the police resorted to lathi-charge to prevent the Congress workers from going towards Raj Bhavan and the angry cadre set a two-wheeler on fire and, getting atop the RTC buses, they raised slogans against the Modi government.
Police arrested all the senior leaders including TPCC president, A. Revanth Reddy; CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka; MLAs T. Jayaprakash Reddy, Sreedhar Babu and senior leaders J. Geetha Reddy, and Renuka Chowdhury among others. They were shifted to different police stations.
The Chalo Raj Bhavan was called to protest against the ‘harassment’ of Rahul Gandhi in the name of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate.
A large number of activists along with senior leaders gathered at Khairatabad and tried to take out a rally to Raj Bhavan pushing aside barricades. Police had to resort to cane charging to disperse the gathering and the angry cadre reacted strongly raising slogans against the government. Senior leader Chamala Kiran Reddy suffered injuries with several policemen with canes attacked him mercilessly. He was shifted to Apollo hospitals.
Youth Congress president, Shivasena Reddy also suffered injuries when his leg was caught in the police van door as he was forcibly taken away. Some party workers also suffered injuries in the melee. An old two-wheeler was set on fire on the road leading to traffic jam on the busy road.
Renuka’s tiff with police
Former Union Minister, Renuka Chowdhury allegedly caught the collar of a police officer with an intimidating tone while she was being arrested. An angry Ms. Renuka alleged that police had no guts to stop the ‘goons’ going to the Assembly but were attacking women. She later clarified that her hand fell on the officer’s shoulder as she was pushed, and she had no intention of intimidating any officer.
Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka too had an altercation with DCP Joel Davis who allegedly pushed him when the former was trying to move towards Raj Bhavan. He accused the officer of indecent behaviour when the protests were peaceful. Mr. Revanth Reddy blamed the police for the incident and said some officers deliberately created the violent situation to target the Congress leaders. He said DCP Joel Davis also behaved provocatively with Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka. Sanga Reddy MLA, Jayaprakash Reddy said police should be held responsible for the tense situation.
