Telangana Police on Friday arrested state BJP leader Jitta Balakrishna Reddy for insulting Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao by organizing a skit.
Police arrested him from Ghatkesar toll plaza near Hyderabad in the early hours of the day. A court in the Rangareddy district later granted him bail.
Police said the BJP leader was arrested for indulging in hate speech and inciting hatred and causing provocation for violence through an event organized by the cultural team of the BJP on Telangana Formation Day (June 2).
On a complaint by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) social media convenor Y. Satish Reddy, police booked Balakrishna Reddy, state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay and others under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 114 (abettor present when the offense is committed), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 505(2) (statements causing public mischief, promoting enmity) read with 109.
A case was registered against them at the Hayathnagar Police Station under Rachakonda Police Commissionerate.
The complainant had alleged that the organizers misused the platform to defame the government schemes with false accusations of the CM and the government with an intention to mislead the people and provoke hatred and unrest.
According to police, under the leadership of state BJP president Bandi Sanjay and organizers, Jitta Balakrishna Reddy and Rani Rudrama organized an event in view of Telangana Formation Day and ‘misused the dais for performing a skit (hate act)’ with the help of the BJP cultural team member Boddu Yellanna alias Daruvu Yellanna by insulting a person who is holding a constitutional post being democratically elected by the people of the state. The skit was telecast on a Telugu TV news channel.
A case was registered against Bandi Sanjay, Balakrishna Reddy, Rani Rudramma, Boddu Yellanna, and his team.
On examining the video, police found that the organizers made ‘derogatory comments, personal attacks depicting the chief minister as a boozer, cheater, etc., to lower the image of a person elected by democratic means and holding a constitutional post’.
The police also recovered the ‘chief minister’s face mask’, a liquor bottle, and Flexi of Telangana Formation Day.
Meanwhile, Bandi Sanjay condemned the midnight arrest of Balakrishna Reddy. He alleged that the TRS government was trying to create an atmosphere of fear by resorting to ‘undemocratic means’.
