HYDERABAD: The Congress has demanded that cases under SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act should be booked against the police and TRS activists involved in the alleged assault on Dalit leader and state Congress general secretary K Manavatha Roy while he was taking rest in a hotel room in Nagarjuna Sagar on Tuesday.
“Place under suspension pending inquiry the police officer and personnel, and also TRS members who were part of the brutal attack on Dalit leader Roy on the eve of BR Ambedkar’s 130th birth anniversary. Please order an impartial inquiry and take stringent action,” AICC spokesperson Dasoju Sravan stated in a representation submitted to the Director General of Police on Wednesday.
Stating that Roy is also the leader of Joint Action Committee of the Unemployed Youth Associations who has been pioneering the agitation against KCR-government for failing to fill up 1.91 lakh vacancies in the government sector, the Congress delegation led by Dasoju Sravan told reporters that the only fault committed by Roy was to campaign for Congress candidate Jana Reddy and speak against CM KCR.
“Detention of Congress cadres ahead of KCR’s public meeting in Nagarjuna Sagar constituency is unacceptable. We are left with 36 hours of campaigning and detention of congress cadres is nothing but snatching away their constitutional right to campaign in elections,” Sravan said.
“We appeal to the DGP to uphold the Constitutional rights of common people and ensure that there is no discrimination against Congress cadre. We earnestly urge the DGP to kindly order an inquiry into the conspiracy of local police and TRS members attacking the Dalit student, and instruct the concerned officers to file cases under SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and other relevant sections of IPC against the those involved in the assault.
TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that Roy was arrested because he spoke against chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. AICC secretary S A Sampath Kumar along with party leaders paid tributes to the portrait of Ambedkar on his 130 birth anniversary in Nagarjuna Sagar constituency and held a silent protest against the atrocities on Dalits by the ruling TRS.
The Congress leaders demanded immediate release of party members arrested ahead of CM KCR's meeting in Halia.