Midnight swoop against Congress chief Revanth Reddy ahead of KCR's rally

Hyderabad: Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy, who threatened to disrupt TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s public meeting at Kosgi, was picked up from his home in the early hours of Tuesday and detained for 13 hours under preventive custody by the Jadcherla police. 

The Congress leader, who was dragged out of his house hours ahead of Mr Rao’s rally in Mahbubnagar district, was released only after the TRS chief left the district.

In a pre-dawn raid, police personnel wearing protective body-gear broke into Revanth Reddy’s bedroom at 3 am, while his wife Geetha and daughter Nimishya Reddy were asleep. A troop of 100 cops surrounded his residence at Kodangal in Vikarabad, while a group of officers, including women, forced their way into the bedroom by breaking down the door.  

Mr Revanth Reddy asked the police to produce an arrest warrant, but the cops told him to “cooperate”.

His wife and daughter asked the police party whether they were terrorists to be picked up in such a manner and a police officer replied that they were only following the orders of their seniors. 

The Congress leader was dragged out of his house; the police also arrested his four brothers, 140 party workers and servants.

“The group which claimed to be police forcefully opened the main gate and barged into my house and broke open the bedroom doors where my father, mother and I were asleep,” said Mr Reddy’s daughter Nimishya Reddy.

Wife Geetha Reddy broke down after the arrest. 

“They tried showing us a paper which they claimed to be a search warrant but did not give us time to read it.  When we asked questions, instead of answering, they dragged him away as if he was a terrorist or anti-social element,” said Mr Reddy’s daughter Nimishya Reddy

“This is being done to harass and create panic before the elections. We have serious doubts about the cops’ identity as they did not show identification. We haven't been informed about his whereabouts, who took him and on what grounds. We are hearing about my father only from media channels,” Nimishya Reddy said.

Towards the end of the day-long drama, the Office of the Election Commission of Telangana issued a statement: “Mr Revanth Reddy threatened to disrupt the TRS meeting, so he was arrested. The administration is functioning as per the law.” 

The statement was signed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajat Kumar. He later instructed the TS DGP to release the Congress leader.