Telangana: Bandi Sanjay Kumar's arrest stirs up political storm

Hyderabad/New Delhi: In a major political development, Karimnagar District Court sent the state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay, and four others to 14-day judicial remand. He was arrested late on Sunday night from his camp office under the Disaster Management Act, violating Covid-19 norms, attacking police and various other sections while he launched Jan Jagaran Deeksha to demand amendment to GO 317 to help the teachers and employees. He was produced before the Karimnagar District Court on Monday.

This is the first time that an opposition leader has been sent to jail under the Disaster Management Act in the State. This action of the police has invited strong reaction from the BJP leaders, including the national president JP Nadda and several state leaders and is likely to boil into a major political controversy. Nadda said, "The arrest of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay is highly condemnable and amounts to the murder of democracy. He was peacefully staging a protest following all Covid protocols in his office. Police forcibly entered his office and manhandled him.".

He criticised the police for barging violently into the office of the state president.

The police manhandled him and dragged him out of his office, just for extending his support to the protesting teachers of government schools, Nadda said in a video. He further said, "K Chandrasekhar Rao government has gone mad seeing BJP's victory in recent bypolls and the support that our party is receiving in the State. We will take all legal and democratic recourse against the police action."

V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, condemned the high-handedness of the State Police and the arrest of Bandi Sanjay. Union Minister for Tourism G Kishan Reddy at a press conference cautioned the state police not to dance to the tunes of the government. "The police need to answer why no action was taken when a bike rally with 2,000 people was taken out in Chityal to welcome KTR without following any Covid-19 norms. None of them were even wearing a mask. Why did the government allow pubs and hotels to hold New Year celebrations? Why did the government hold 'Rythu Bandhu Utsavalu'. Were they not in violation of the Disaster Management Act? How can there be different laws for different people, he asked.