TRS MP booked for sedition

TRS Lok Sabha member K. Kavitha, who is also the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, has been booked on sedition charges for an alleged controversial statement on Jammu and Kashmir.

On the direction of a city court, a first information report (FIR) was registered against Kavitha, a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Lok Sabha member from Nizamabad, at the Madannapet police station.

Kavitha has been booked under charges of sedition, promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial maintenance of harmony, for statements conducing to public mischief, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Police took the action nearly a week after a city court directed it to register a case against the Lok Sabha member.

Police Monday submitted their report to the court.

The additional chief metropolitan magistrate had passed the orders Aug 5 on a private petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist and advocate K. Karunasagar.

The complainant claimed that Kavitha, in an interview to a newspaper, stated that both Jammu and Kashmir, and Hyderabad, were not part of India earlier and forcefully annexed.

Quoting excerpts from the interview, the BJP leader alleged that the TRS parliamentarian's remarks were malicious and will boost the spirit of anti-nationals.