A team of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders were detained on Tuesday by the police when they were heading to Kodangal in Vikarabad district to meet those arrested following the attack on some district officials on Monday.
Former speaker Madhusudhana Chary, former IPS officer R. S. Praveen Kumar, Karthik Reddy, Surender Reddy and other officials were stopped by police when they were on their way to Kodangal, the Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minster A. Revanth Reddy.
The BRS leaders said that they wanted to visit the district to express solidarity with those who were arrested in connection with Monday’s incident at Lagacharla village.
The officials were attacked by some villagers opposing land acquisition for the proposed ‘Pharma Village’.
Police stopped the BRS leaders near Changomal in Pudur mandal. They were all taken to Changomal Police Station and later sent back to Hyderabad.
Vikarabad District Collector Prateek Jain, Additional Collector G. Lingya Naik, and Kodangal Area Development Authority (KADA) Chairman Venkat Reddy were attacked by a mob in Lagacharla village of Dudyala mandal when they were trying to collect the opinion of farmers who are losing their villages in the proposed pharma cluster.
Following the incident, police arrested several villagers since Monday night. Internet services have been suspended in Dudyala, Kodangal and Bomraspeta mandals in the district.
BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao has condemned the arrests and said such actions would fail to suppress people’s voices. He alleged that farmers were arrested for Monday’s incidents. “Is this the democratic rule,” he asked.
Senior BRS leader and former minister T. Harish Rao has also condemned the arrests of villagers and demanded their immediate release.
He said that it was atrocious to send 300 police personnel and arrest the villagers. He alleged that the government is using police to threaten those who were refusing to give their lands for ‘Pharma Village’.
Harish Rao said that the government resorting to repression by using police in the middle of the night was highly condemnable.
He wanted to know why Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy wanted to acquire land for ‘Pharma Village’ without taking people’s opinions.
Alleging that land was being acquired for the vested interests of the Chief Minister, he demanded that the process be stopped immediately and that the villagers and farmers arrested by police be released.