New Delhi: The Telangana Police has booked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar and others over a skit organised under his leadership on June 2, Telangana Formation Day, which allegedly defamed chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government, according to Indian Express.
A state BJP leader Jitta Balakrishna Reddy, who was arrested in connection with the case, was released on Friday, June 1o, on bail.
Based on a complaint lodged at Hayathnagar Police Station in Hyderabad, police charged Kumar, Reddy, Rani Rudrama, Daruvu Yellanna and other BJP leaders under Sections 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 505(2) (statements causing public mischief, promoting enmity) of the Indian Penal Code.
The complaint was lodged by TRS social media convenor Y. Satish Reddy who submitted to the police video footage of the skit in question. He alleged that the organisers had misused the platform to defame government schemes with false accusations against the chief minister and the government. He said that the organisers had the intention to mislead the people and provoke hatred and unrest.
The FIR said the act was against the democratic ethos and hurt public will by personally targeting and defaming the elected government and the state’s chief minister.
According to the Indian Express report, the police in an official statement said, “On June, under the leadership state BJP president Bandi Sanjay, Jitta Balakrishna Reddy and Rani Rudrama organised an event in view of Telangana Formation Day and misused the dais for performing a skit (hate act) with the help of BJP cultural team member Daruvu Yellanna and insulted a person who is holding a constitutional post being democratically elected by the people of the state and the same was telecast on a Telugu TV news channel.”
Speaking of the arrest of his colleague, the BJP chief asked, ” What is the reason for the arrest? Did he commit a heinous crime? Is he a murderer? Why such a hurry to arrest him at midnight.”
A police official associated with the case said that actors in the skit had made derogatory comments and personal attacks, depicting the chief minister of the state as a “drunkard” and “cheater”.
