New Delhi: TRS MLA Koneru Konappa – whose brother led a mob attack on a female forest officer on Sunday – has been caught on video asking villagers to mislead the media on the events that led to the attack.
On Sunday, forest range officer C. Anitha went to Sarasala village in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district in Telangana with some officials to plant saplings as part of the government’s ‘Haritha Haram’ green initiative programme. Some villagers, led by Koneru Krishna, attacked them with bamboo poles, claiming that the land belongs to them. She suffered head injuries. Video footage of the attack, went viral, prompting outrage.
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On Monday, another video showed Konappa briefing some locals and asking them to mislead the media. “Tell them you have lands there and that the officials have dug up the land. Tell them you have been threatened. You should tell them that they beat you up 15 days ago, and again on Sunday,” he can be heard saying in the video.
The forest department has said that the land where the plantation drive is being held is a reserve forest area. It has accused the MLA’s brother of trying to encroach the land, and leading the attack to stop forest officials from performing their duties. There were also no reports of forest officials attacking the villagers.
The MLA then says that he will call reporters to meet the locals, and adds, “Tell them that the attack occurred after they beat you up. All of you say the same thing.”
According to The News Minute, the Sirpur MLA was referring to an argument between residents and forest officials which occurred around two weeks ago. “However, he was telling the villagers to exaggerate, as there was no violence from either side that day,” a source told the wesbsite.
Koneru Krishna was arrested on Sunday and also resigned as Zilla Parishad’s vice chairman. A case was also registered against him and 15 others. In a press note, the forest divisional officer of Kaghaznagar alleged that the MLA’s brother and the locals conducted the attack as they had a ‘malafide intention’ to occupy the reserve forest land.
The Centre on Monday said it has taken “a serious note of the assault”. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said “such incidents cannot be tolerated”.
“We are taking it very seriously because this cannot be tolerated. We, as a regulator, will do whatever possible,” Javadekar said.