Kavitha’s arrest ‘undemocratic’, ‘illegal’, ‘immoral’: Harish

Hyderabad: Strongly condemning the arrest of party MLC K Kavitha and terming it ‘undemocratic’, ‘illegal’ and ‘immoral’, BRS leader T Harish Rao on Friday gave a call for protests in all Assembly constituencies on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference here at the party office Telangana Bhavan after the arrest, he said the BJP leaders had many times spoken like ED officers about arrest for the last one and half years. He said tomorrow notification will be issued for the Lok Sabha elections and arresting Kavitha today was an attempt to demoralise the party and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao.

“The BJP and the Congress are conspiring to demoralise the party and take advantage of the situation in the ensuing LS elections. Arrests and conspiracies are not new for us. We have faced and thwarted such situations in the past. We will face it politically and legally. We have total confidence in the judiciary. We will be filing a petition in the Supreme Court and fight legally,” said Rao.

He questioned the timing of the arrest. He said the case came up for hearing in the Supreme Court; it was posted on March 19. The ED had told the apex court that they will not take coercive steps. “Taking a woman into custody on Friday, that too in the evening shows it is a politically-motivated conspiracy. What is the need to arrest in an urgent manner? A case was going on in the SC on custody of women in cases of West Bengal CM Mamata's family, Nalini Chidambaram and Kavitha. ‘An inquiry is going on in the Supreme Court; the matter is to come up on 19th. This is an attempt to affect Parliament elections. The situation is like an emergency,” said Rao, recalling the party leaders including ministers, MPs and MLAs were also harassed. This is nothing but political vendetta’.

Rao said one year back Kavitha was given notices as witness. ‘Now after one and half years they have included Kavitha as accused. This is given with politically ill-intent. People are watching and they will teach a lesson. They have come pre-planned. First they said they came for searches; later they said arrest. They have not given a chance to go to court. Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday a day after. “Struggle is not new for us. Our party is born for agitation. We will protest. We have confidence in judiciary,” said Rao. Former Minister G Jagadish Reddy also spoke.