Anam furious over cases against temple officials

Nellore: Venkatagiri MLA and former minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy had a face off with Dargamitta police on Thursday over registration of a case under SC/ST Atrocities Act against Sri Venugopala Swamy temple authorities on a complaint by a land encroacher. Police personnel allegedly detained the temple officials for more than three hours in the station for just demolishing the illegal structure on the land. A tribal family has been running a tiffin centre on the temple land in the city for some time in a makeshift structure.

Recently, temple authorities demolished the structure noticing it was an illegal one. Then the tribal woman lodged a complaint with the Dargamitta police who registered an SC/ST atrocity case against the chairman and manager and asked them to come to the police station for enquiry at 3 pm.

Former minister and Venkatagiri MLA Ramanarayana Reddy who received information, rushed to the Dargamitta police station at around 6 pm and questioned circle inspector Sitaramaiah about bringing temple officials to the police station for enquiry. He said that the land belongs to Venugopala Swamy temple and the administration has every right to protect its properties. He demanded action against the officer who is responsible for the entire episode.

The MLA also lodged a complaint with the DGP K V Rajendranath Reddy on the issue over the phone. Further, SP Ch Vijaya Rao and additional SP Himavathi rushed to the police station and tried to pacify the infuriated legislator.