The Hyderabad police on Tuesday, September 8, arrested Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLCs Thatha Madhusudhan and N Naveen Kumar for allegedly making abusive remarks against Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar.
The complaint was filed by the Speaker’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), who alleged that the two MLCs made foul and slanderous remarks against the Speaker while being aware of his Madiga caste identity. According to the complaint, the remarks constitute an offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The MLCs were arrested under Section 352 (intentional insult) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The complaint alleged that Madhusudhan and Naveen Kumar used “malicious”, “unprovoked”, and “profoundly slanderous language” against the Speaker.
The alleged incident took place around 9.30 am on Monday, September 7, in the security area of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, when official proceedings were underway.
The BRS legislators had begun the day protesting against what they alleged was the Congress government’s failure to fulfil its electoral promises. Several BRS MLAs arrived wearing black t-shirts carrying slogans criticising the Congress government.
Some of the t-shirts carried the message: “Congress failed to fulfil its promises. Its 1,000-day rule has failed.” BRS working president KT Rama Rao and former minister T Harish Rao were among those who wore the t-shirts.
Harish Rao later removed his t-shirt and insisted that he be allowed to enter the Assembly. However, police detained him along with KTR.
The protests also led to a controversy over a scuffle between BRS women legislators and security personnel. The BRS women legislators were allegedly manhandled when they attempted to enter the Assembly.
A video showed security personnel appearing to pull BRS MLA and former minister Sabitha Indra Reddy by her hair. Another BRS MLA, Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, alleged that police personnel pulled her saree.
“As a woman who has been an MLA for decades, I have never seen such a situation. They pulled us by our throat, hair, and saree. Who gave the orders to do this? If the police behaved this way without the Chief Minister’s orders, action must be taken against those responsible. Or else, the police acted on the CM’s orders, or to please the CM,” Sabitha said.
She demanded an apology from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and questioned whether the police personnel had acted on his orders.