TDP Protests 'manhandling' of its leaders by Maha Police

Telugu Desam Party activists staged protests and rasta rokos across Andhra Pradesh following reports that their party leaders including president, N Chandrababu Naidu, were manhandled by the Maharashtra police on Tuesday.

The TDP chief and his supporters including MLAs and MPs, who were remanded to judicial custody till July 26, were forcefully moved from Dharmabad to Aurangabad airport in Maharashtra on Tuesday amid high drama and complaints that police had cane-charged them.

They were arrested by the Maharashtra police on July 16 when they entered Dharmabad town, around eight kilometres from the Andhra border in Nanded district, to protest against the construction of Babli barrage on the river Godavari.

As the reports of manhandling of trickled in, the TDP activists went berserk and started stoning buses at various places besides blocking traffic and burning the effigies of Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan.

Police arrested TDP leaders N Janardhana Reddy, P Keshav, K Rammohan Rao and D Veerabhadra Rao and other party activists when they tried to storm the Jubilee Hall in the state capital where Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was holding a meeting of the chief ministers of the southern states.

Giving a regional twist to the entire episode, TDP activists in Anantapur district damaged two lorries belonging to Maharashtra. They also warned that they would disrupt the Wednesday's scheduled visit of Chavan to Puttaparthi, the home of godman Sai Baba, located in the district.

Film actor Mohan Babu took out a rally in the temple town of Tirupati protesting that the manhandling of the TDP leaders amounted to an assault on “ the self respect of Telugus.”

Chief minister K Rosaiah condemned the reported manhandling of the TDP leaders and appealed to the people to exercise restraint and caution as Babli was an inter-state problem, which should be handled delicately.

State home minister, Sabitha Indra Reddy, said she would call for a detailed report on what happened at Dharmabad. A TDP delegation met the state governor, ESL Narasimhan, and apprised him of how the Maharashtra police misbehaved with the party leaders at Dharmabad.

The Maharashtra government was reported have withdrawn all the cases filed against Naidu and his supporters by Tuesday evening.