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National

National

BJP workers' turn to face police ire

P. Ram Mohan

Mahila Morcha leaders among 150 lathicharged on way to Babli site

Photo: K. Venkataramana

BATTLE INTENSIFIES: The Maharashtra police lathicharging BJP activists at Sagarouli village when they tried to proceed to the Babli project site on Wednesday.

SAGAROULI (MAHARASHTRA): The Maharashtra police resorted to a lathicharge again when BJP functionaries tried to force their way to Babli project site through this village, 20 km from Bodhan in Nizamabad district, on Wednesday afternoon. Twenty-one functionaries, including three Mahila Morcha leaders, were injured. (On Tuesday, TDP workers were lathicharged.)

About 150 party activists, including former Union Ministers — Ch. Vidyasagar Rao and Bandaru Dattatreya — former MLAs — K. Lakshman, B. Bal Reddy, G. Ramakrishna Reddy and L. Venkatramana Reddy — were taken into custody. They were shifted to Biloli, taluq headquarters in Nanded district, for detention.

The police began raining blows on them as soon as the workers arrived in vehicles around 1.20 p.m.

A large contingent of lathi-wielding Maharashtra policemen were ready to disperse or if necessary arrest the acitivists. They did not spare even women and mediapersons and continued to beat them even after they fell on the road leading to Biloli.

The police sealed the road and resorted to lathicharge twice in an interval of 30 minutes. Unlike on Tuesday on the inter-State border near Dharmabad, the police allowed the protesters to enter the State up to 2 km to avoid criticism that they had entered Andhra Pradesh and resorted to a lathicharge. Some of the protesters were bundled into waiting police vans.

Earlier, Nanded district Collector Radheshyam Muppalwar and Fatehsinh Patil, SP, tried to prevail upon Mr. Dattatreya and Mr. Vidyasagar Rao to leave the place. Vehicular movement on the Bodhan-Biloli road was affected as the drama continued for over two hours. The police had a tough time regulating traffic.

Among those injured were the party Nizamabad district president B. Linga Reddy, former president Y. Lakshminarayana, publicity secretary Tota Gopal, State secretaries Aljapur Srinivas and Vanam Jhansi Rani and other leaders such as Leela Sivashree, Srivani, Jugal Kishore, Bharat Reddy and Mohan Patel.

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