Hyderabad: Condemning the arrest of its leader K. Kavitha, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) gave a call to its party cadres to hold demonstrations across Telangana on Sunday.
Former minister and BRS leader, T. Harish Rao, described Kavitha’s arrest in the Delhi liquor policy case as a “conspiracy” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress to gain political mileage in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. He said both parties are trying hard to demoralise BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and party workers at a time when the Election Commission is all set to announce the schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Calling it “undemocratic, illegal, and unethical”, Harish Rao said the arrest was carried out on Friday evening to prevent them from launching legal proceedings, as Saturday and Sunday are court holidays. He recalled that BJP leaders and Union ministers had been issuing threatening statements about Kavitha’s impending arrest for the past one-and-a-half years.
He questioned the arrest stating that it was done merely three days before the Supreme Court was set to hear a bunch of petitions filed by Kavitha, Nalini Chidambaram, and a relative of Mamata Banerjee challenging the questioning of women at the offices of investigating agencies.
Earlier, Kavitha left for the airport in the car of ED, as she was flown to Delhi by officials. She flashed a victory sign as she got into the car and her brother, K.T. Rama Rao, consoled her.
Rama Rao too left for Delhi separately, immediately after Kavitha was taken away. He is said to be camping in Delhi to arrange legal aid for his sister with senior Supreme Court lawyers.
Meanwhile, police resorted to a mild lathi charge when BRS party workers and supporters tried to construct the convoy of ED.
On the other hand, ED lodged a police complaint against Rama Rao at Banjara Hills police station for allegedly obstructing ED officials from carrying out their work, and on the accusation that he forced his way into Kavitha’s house where searches were being conducted. ED official Bhanu Priya Meena in her complaint said that Rama Rao had threatened the officials, who were discharging their duty.
Meanwhile, Union minister and BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy hurriedly convened a teleconference with party leaders asking them not to speak about the arrest.
The alliance partner of BRS, the Bahujan Samaj Party, said in a statement that the arrest was part of blackmail tactics of Narendra Modi to check the secular agenda of the two parties, both of which were opposed to BJP and Congress.
