Telangana Congress leader and Kodangal MLA Revanth Reddy filed a lunch motion in the Hyderabad High Court after he was detained by the Telangana police in the early hours of Tuesday, hours before a scheduled meeting by caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the area.
The lunch motion will be heard by the High Court at 2.15 pm and Advocate CV Mohan Reddy will be appearing on behalf of Revanth.
Following the leader's arrest, supporters in areas like Navapet, Pedda Nandigama staged rasta rokos, raised slogans and demanded that Revanth be released immediately.
Early Tuesday morning, policemen entered Revanth’s house in Kodangal and broke open his bedroom door. The MLA's aides can be seen arguing with the officials, demanding that they be shown ID cards of the authorities and also a copy of the arrest warrant. The police said that it was a preventive arrest on the orders of the Election Commission (EC) as Revanth had appealed to the people in his constituency to boycott the meeting by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and hold protests in the area.
Section 144 was imposed in the constituency following Revanth's arrest. Geetha, Revanth's wife, questioned how the rally could be held if the prohibitive order was imposed and appealed to Revanth's supporters to maintain peace. Kodangal Assembly constituency falls in two districts – Mahabubnagar and Vikarabad.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters, Vikarabad Superintendent of Police T Annapurna said that the leader was arrested under Section 151 of the CrPC (Arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences).
"We will keep him under preventive custody for few hours. He is safe and we have done this in order to execute the elections peacefully and lawfully to ensure that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is not disturbed, as the situation may lead to provocation between parties," she said.
However, it is unclear if KCR's meeting will take place as per schedule or not.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) shot off a letter to the Election Commission and stated that a bandh had not been called for and that the EC was liable for the costs the Congress incurred.
“You are informed that Revanth Reddy never called for a bandh at Kosgi. There is no complaint with the DEO (District Election Officer) as could be known from the DEO’s office before you started to give instructions to the police of Telangana state,” it stated.
“The caretaker CM also has to be treated as a former MLA but you seem to have treated him as a Chief Minister and gave instructions under the influence of state machinery to prevent Mr Revanth Reddy and kept them under preventive arrest,” it further added.
“The program of Mr Revanth Reddy, working president and as a star campaigner has already been fixed in advance and a chopper has been booked for the said purpose. Because of your action, all monies and time and rent for the chopper etc. have become a useless exercise and for which you alone would be held liable. If you want to send Revanth Reddy out of Kodangal constituency, you may allow him to fly to other constituencies by chopper as a star campaigner, but fail to understand why you arrested him and at whose instance,” the letter said.
Earlier this week, TRS General Secretary Sreenivas Reddy met Telangana CEO Rajat Kumar and accused Revanth Reddy of indulging in attempts to sabotage their party meeting. In their letter to Rajat Kumar, the TRS said that KCR was going to Kosgi in Kodangal constituency at around 3 pm on December 4 to address a public meeting in support of local TRS candidate Patnam Narender Reddy, the brother of Transport Minister Patnam Mahender Reddy.