Cops detain state Congress leaders for attempted siege

Hyderabad: The call given by the state Congress for a siege of Pragathi Bhavan, the official residence of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in support of the striking TSRTC employees, led to some dramatic events on Monday. Some party leaders were put under house arrest and party workers who came to protest were detained by the large number of policemen deployed at Pragathi Bhavan.

Tension prevailed in the surrounding areas as party workers continued to flock in. Malkajgiri MP A. Revanth Reddy surprised everyone by evading the police and reaching Pragathi Bhavan on Monday, where he was taken into custody.  

Police had been deployed around the residence of Mr Reddy in Jubilee Hills on Sunday midnight but they did not find him at his home when they went in and checked. Yet on Monday afternoon, out of the blue, Mr Reddy came out of his residence and surprised the police. Before they could react, he got on to his two- wheeler and reached Pragathi Bhavan in Begumpet along with other party workers.

The police deployed around Pragathi Bhavan immediately took him into custody and shifted him to Kamatipura police station.

As all this was going on, Sangareddy MLA T. Jayaprakash ‘Jagga’ Reddy emerged from an autorickshaw and raised a protest. He too was detained by the police and with 35 others taken to the Shahinayathgunj police station.