Several Congress leaders in Telangana were put on house arrest in Hyderabad on Monday, ahead of the party’s plans to stage protests against alleged irregularities in the auction of government lands in the city’s Kokapet area. Those who were put on house arrest including Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy, who was stopped from coming out of his house in Jubilee Hills by the police. Teams of police personnel were also deployed at the offices and residences of other senior Congress leaders in the state like Bhatti Vikramarka, Ram Reddy Damodar Reddy, Jagga Reddy and others.
Congress senior leaders Vem Narender Reddy and Md Shabbir Ali condemned the house arrest of Revanth Reddy, they said that the move pointed to the autocratic nature of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s government. In a statement, Shabbir Ali pointed out that the house arrest also curtailed Revanth Reddy’s right to participate in the ongoing Parliament session in New Delhi.
Revanth Reddy himself, wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker and said that he was obstructed from discharging his duties as a Member of Parliament (MP), by the Telangana police, at the instance of the Chief Minister. "I was prevented from attending the Parliament, which offends the parliamentary privileges during the progress of the session. Permission of the Hon'ble Speaker is absolutely necessary to arrest the parliamentarian, particularly when it is a political arrest. Hence, I request your good selves involvement to enable me to attend parliament, apart from proceeding against the authorities mentioned under parliamentary privileges."
Congress MP Manickam Tagore, responding to the house arrest of Revanth Reddy, said, "Telangana government has become 'Hitler raj'. What democratic principles do Chandrasekhar Rao and his son want to follow? I condemn Reddy's arrest and demand his release. We will raise this in Parliament."
Meanwhile, a few Congress activists planted party flags in Kokapet, at the sites which were e- auctioned recently. Earlier this week, Revanth Reddy alleged that there were irregularities to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in the auction of Kokapet and Khanamet plots conducted by the government. He claimed that given the market prices, the auction should have fetched Rs 3,000 crore, but it only raked in Rs 2,000 crore.
He said that he would file a complaint about the "scam" to the Union Home Minister and Prime Minister of India, to seek appropriate action. Repeated attempts to contact concerned police officials went unanswered, but according to reports, authorities said that the house arrests took place as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident.