Telangana assembly elections 2018: Telangana Congress leader Revanth Reddy arrested ahead of KCR rally

Telangana Congress leader Anumula Revanth Reddy was arrested in an early morning swoop on his residence in Kodangal of Vikarabad district on Tuesday ahead of caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s election rally in the town.

The police said the arrest was necessitated with a view to preventing any untoward incident in Kodangal in the wake of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president KCR’s meeting later in the evening.

Reddy, who is contesting as a Congress candidate from Kodangal assembly constituency, had earlier called for a shutdown in the town to protest the alleged police raids on his associates in the town to search for unaccounted money. He also threatened to stall the chief minister’s visit to the town.

The police also took his brothers, gunmen and even the watchman of his house into custody. But the gunmen and watchman were later let off at Parigi, about 30km from Kodangal. Unconfirmed reports said Reddy had been taken to Shamshabad police station on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Reddy’s wife Geetha told reporters that police had broken the front door of their house at around 3am, entered the bedroom and forcibly took him away without even giving him a chance to change.

“This is highly undemocratic. He has only asked the people to question the government for neglecting the constituency by the TRS government in the last four years and not implementing the promises. I appeal to the people not to indulge in any violence but to maintain peace and show their anger in the form of a vote against the TRS,” she said.

Local TRS leaders led by party candidate P Narender Reddy on Monday lodged a complaint with Telangana chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar and director general of police Mahendar Reddy, alleging Reddy was trying to instigate people and create law and order problems during the chief minister’s meeting.

Following instructions from the Election Commission, the police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on Monday and Tuesday.

Kumar said the poll body was treating Kodangal as a politically sensitive constituency based on the contesting candidates. Kodangal returning officer K Aruna Kumari had also sent a notice to Reddy for violation of the model code of conduct.

The election to elect lawmakers for the 119 constituencies in Telangana will be held on December 7 and votes will be counted on December 11.

First Published: Dec 04, 2018 08:35 IST