Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao was taken into custody by police while he was on his way to start a fast unto death for separate Telangana.
The Telangana region erupted in protests on Sunday after the arrest of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao. Rao, a member of Parliament from Mahabubnagar, was arrested amid high drama at his residence in Karimnagar as he stepped out to reach Siddipet, about 200 km from Hyderabad, for his indefinite hunger strike demanding the creation of a separate Telangana state.
He was shifted to a sub-jail in Khamma and later remanded for 14 days. He has been booked under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 114 (abetment) and sections 117, 120B (criminal conspiracy) among other sections.
The TRS chief later staged a hunger strike at the Khammam sub-jail. He is a diabetic and his pulse rate is reportedly dropping. According to senior TRS leaders, he is opposing the advice of police officials to seek bail on health grounds.
Rao had announced the fast-unto-death about 20 days ago. He had shifted to his residence at Karimnagar in north Telangana two days before November 29, the scheduled day. Thousands of Telangana supporters and TRS cadres had assembled at his residence with a plan to go along with him to the protest site.
As the police foiled Rao’s plan, protests erupted in 10 Telangana districts, leading to the arrest of hundreds of Telangana supporters and TRS workers. It triggered an unprecedented reaction from students of the historic Osmania and Kakatiya universities.
About 4,000 students of Osmania university came out on the roads and the police resorted to lathicharge. Unconfirmed reports said one of the 30 injured students succumbed to injuries in the evening, but officials refused to confirm the death.
Political parties in the state, cutting across ideologies, condemned the arrest. The TRS has called for a bandh on Monday.
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