Senior BRS leaders under house arrest

Several lawmakers and senior party leaders of BRS, including former minister T Harish Rao, were kept under house arrest by the Telangana police

Several lawmakers and senior party leaders of Bharat Rashtra Samithi, including former minister T Harish Rao, were kept under house arrest by the Telangana police across the state on Friday, when they were planning to lay siege to the defected MLA Arekapudi Gandhi.

The BRS told party leaders to storm Gandhi’s house in retaliation to his attack on party MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy’s residence and his followers on Thursday (File photo)

The BRS told party leaders to storm Gandhi’s house in retaliation to his attack on party MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy’s residence and his followers on Thursday.

Gandhi’s followers allegedly ransacked Reddy’s premises and threw eggs and tomatoes at him.

Gandhi and Reddy had been indulging in a war of words for the past two days, after the former was nominated as the chairman of public accounts committee (PAC). The BRS took strong exception to Gandhi’s appointment as he had defected from the BRS to the Congress in July and as per the assembly traditions, the post should have been given to the opposition party. Apart from T Harish Rao and Padi Kaushik Reddy, the police kept former ministers P Sabitha Indra Reddy and T Srinivas Yadav under house arrest along with MLAs M Krishna Rao and K P Vivekanand Goud. Similarly, several other BRS leaders were also reportedly kept under house arrests in different parts of Telangana.

Following instructions from chief minister A Revanth Reddy, police officials form Cyberabad and Rachakonda Commissionerates mobilised police forces in big numbers at the residences of all important BRS leaders.

As Harish Rao and others came out of their houses, the police sent them back saying that they were under house arrest.

T Harish Rao was later allowed to go to a hospital for getting his shoulder injury treated which he sustained when the police picked him up from the office of the Cyberabad commissioner of police on Thursday.

“Is this public governance? Is this the rule of Indiramma? You are murdering democracy, Revanth Reddy. It is evil to arrest and terrorise the aggrieved party while leaving the attackers alone,” Harish Rao said, adding that he should have some shame.

Meanwhile, DGP Dr Jitendra issued a statement saying the police would maintain zero tolerance towards those out to disturb the law and order situation in the state capital.