Collector, staff beaten up in Vikarabad

Hyderabad:A public hearing on land acquisition to set up a pharma unit turned violent after villagers, who were reportedly provoked by political leaders, thrashed the Vikarabad collector, additional collector, Kodangal area development authority (KADA) special officer, the tahsildar and other revenue officers at Lagacherla village of Dudyala mandal in Vikarbad district on Monday. In the melee three vehicles were damaged when the mod pelted stones.

Hours after the incident, police officials swung into action and started identifying the rioters, who are supposedly closely associated with some BRS leaders.

Vikarabad SP K. Narayana Reddy said that the police had anticipated some disturbances prior to the meeting.

Working on inputs they had gathered, police officials arranged the public hearing on the proposed pharma unit. Police officials urged the district collector Pratheek Jain to organise the meeting near Dudyala locality, three kilometers away from Lagacherla village, the SP said

One Suresh, a close associate of Patnam Narender Reddy, came to the camp posing as a farmer and met the collector informing him that the villagers would turn up for the meeting as it was arranged at a considerable distance from Lagacherla. He also said that the villagers wanted to interact with the collector with regard to the pharma unit and the land acquisition process.

Believing his words, Pratheek Jain, along with his staff, went to Lagacherla to talk to the villagers. A few minutes later, additional collector B. Linkya Naik, KADA special officer Venkat Reddy and other revenue officers reached the village. In an instant, the locals came towards the collector and started arguments.

Even though the collector tried to convince the people, they thrashed him and other officers, who had accompanied him. Later, the collector drove away from the place.

Meanwhile, the villagers started lobbing stones at the vehicles of revenue officers and damaged three parked vehicles.

The SP said that they had registered cases under several sections, including rioting. He said that the ruckus was motivated by political parties. "We anticipated the incident based on inputs and changed the location of the meeting. We will identify the rioters and book them. No farmers had participated in the incident," Narayana Reddy said.

Meanwhile, the revenue and collectorate staff staged a protest against the rioters for attacking government servants. When Jain reached his office, employees of the collectorate staged a protest. The collector said that he was not attacked and it was a disturbance. The employee's union leaders also condemned the attack on revenue officials.