Telangana BJP President and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar was detained by the police in the small hours of Wednesday, triggering protests by his party workers. However, the police gave no reasons for the detention. He was reportedly taken into custody with regard to Xth Class question paper leakage case.
Sanjay Kumar, a Lok Sabha MP from Karimnagar constituency, was picked up by a team of police late on Tuesday night from his residence. The MP’s supporters tried to prevent the police from arresting Kumar, leading to some tense moments.
When BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao went to Bommalaramaram police station to meet Sanjay on Wednesday morning, he was stopped a couple of kilometres away from the police station and was manhandled by the police and taken into custody.
Speaking with the media before his arrest, Raghunandan said that there was a procedure to be followed while arresting a sitting parliament MP and that it was an illegal arrest.
Condemning the police action, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy termed as ‘undemocratic’ the detention of Kumar without citing any reason. The development comes days ahead of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state to inaugurate various projects.
Sanjay Kumar has been shifted to Bommalaramaram police station under Rachakonda Police Commissionerate limits here. A large number of BJP workers gathered there to protest Kumar’s detention and also raised slogans against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. They demanded Sanjay Kumar be immediately released. BJP has called for state-wide protests against what the party leaders are calling an ‘illegal arrest.’
BJP national organising secretary BL Santhosh tweeted saying, “Rattled, riddled with corruption charges, facing electoral reverses @BRSparty & its leadership is a sinking boat. They have touched a raw nerve by arresting @BJP4Telangana State President & MP @bandisanjay_bjp. This will be the last nail on their political existence.”
Meanwhile, BJP leader and party’s I-T department head Amit Malviya in a tweet said: “In a midnight operation, Telangana police has arrested BJP state President Bandi Sanjay Kumar on fabricated charges of being involved in secondary school paper leak. This won’t end well for KCR”.
