Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao was arrested on Saturday after he staged a sit-in protesting against a "false case" against him for allegedly abusing a police officer.
A day after police booked the case against him for abusing a police inspector and deterring him from discharging his official duty, VH launched a sit-in at the statue of Rajiv Gandhi at Somajiguda area.
Several leaders of the Congress party including leader of opposition in Telangana assembly, K. Jana Reddy joined him in the protest to show their solidarity.
VH, who is a secretary of the All India Congress Committee, alleged that a false case was lodged against him.
He said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was imposing restrictions on the movement of opposition leaders.
The senior leader landed himself in a controversy after he allegedly abused a police inspector when the latter tried to prevent him from using the media point in the state assembly premises on Thursday.
He got angry when the inspector Palaparthy Sudhakar told him that the media point is only for members of the assembly and the council.
In a typical Telangana slang, he said: “Nee amma (your mother). Who the hell are you to stop me? You are acting like a ruling party agent", the former MP was heard saying to the inspector.
As the video went viral online, the police officer felt insulted and took to Facebook on Friday to express his feelings. He posted that he wants to resign from his job.
VHR came down heavily on the TRS government for foisting false case against him. He said he had not abused the inspector and was only demanding that he showed the Speaker’s ruling preventing ex-MPs from speaking to media at the media point.
“KCR is behaving as if Telangana is his own property. I had confronted NTR and Chandrababu. After all, who is KCR?” VH asked.
He alleged that there was absolutely no democracy in the KCR regime.
“You can hold meetings in the heart of the city, but you don’t allow us to hold protest meetings at Dharna Chowk? Are we in democracy or monarchy?” he asked.
