At last, senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former MLA from Denduluru in West Godavari district Chintamaneni Prabhakar was arrested by the police at his residence in Duggirala on Wednesday.
The police took him into custody soon after he came to his residence to see his ailing wife. Even as the TDP workers and his followers were raising slogans against the police and the YSR Congress government, the police whisked away Chintamaneni immediately to an unknown place for questioning.
Earlier, in the day, tension prevailed his residence, as the police conducted searches his residence. An argument has broken out between Chintamaneni's followers and police.
The followers raised objections over search operations, in spite of their saying that Chintamaneni would be surrendering to the police.
The former MLA, who had been facing as many as 49 criminal cases besides a latest case under SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act, had been absconding for the last 12 days.
The West Godavari police had constituted three special teams to arrest him, but could not make any headway.
On Wednesday morning, Chintamaneni sent a message to the police that he would be surrendering in front of district SP Navdeep Singh later in the day. However, even as he reached his home, he was arrested by the police.
There had been several cases against him, including the one of assaulting a woman Tehsildar Vanajakshi four years ago. Some of the cases include abductions and torturing of rivals.
Very recently, Pedavegi police booked a criminal case against Chintamaneni for attacking a YSRC activist Cheruku Joseph while he was taking sand in a bullock-cart. The police registered the case under SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act.
