PNS|Hyderabad
Telangana BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao was on Wednesday taken into preventive custody when he was on his way to Gajwel town of Siddipet district, where members of two groups of different communities had staged protests after a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was allegedly desecrated earlier.
The BJP legislator was taken into preventive custody, citing law and order situation in Gajwel; he was then moved to a police station and from there he was shifted to his house, a police official said.
Raghunandan Rao told the media that he was stopped by police in the name of preventive arrest and taken to Alwal police station while he was on his way to Gajwel in connection with the bail pleas of some persons who were arrested over the incident of the desecration of the statue two days ago.
A man in an “inebriated” state who had allegedly urinated at the base of the statue in Gajwel town on Monday night was “assaulted and paraded” on the road by a group of people, triggering tensions with members of two groups of different communities holding protests.
One person was injured after some members of another group belonging to the man’s community “attacked” him following the incident.
Three persons including the man who urinated near the statue and two others who attacked and injured a person were arrested, police had said on Tuesday.
A senior police official on Wednesday said the situation is normal in Gajwel.
The official further said 12 persons from both the groups have been arrested so far, pertaining to seven cases, and some more arrests will be made.
