Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday, 5 December, slammed Telangana Police after they detained Congress leader A Revanth Reddy for “threatening” to stop a public meeting of TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao.
Police detained Reddy on Tuesday, 4 December, four days ahead of the state elections.
Asking if Telangana was a “banana republic”, the high court summoned the state police chief, reported NDTV.
The Election Commission has also ordered the removal of the superintendent of police of Telangana’s Vikarabad district over Reddy’s arrest, after the police observer found his detention “unwarranted”.
An official communication issued by Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar in Hyderabad said, "The Election Commission of India has ordered the transfer of Smt T Annapurna, IPS, SP Vikarabad, immediately and posted Sri Avinash Mohanthy IPS ( RR 2005) in place of her with immediate effect."
‘Annapurna’s Services Not to Be Utilised for Election Purposes,’ Says EC
It is also directed that Annapurna's services are not utilised for election purpose, the order said. The commission has also directed that Annapurna be attached to the police headquarters, an EC functionary said in New Delhi.
The observers are deployed by the EC to keep an eye on various issues related to elections.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the Vikarabad police had taken Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president Reddy into preventive custody citing law and order issues.
Reddy’s arrest came ahead of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ‘s meeting at Kodangal. He had given a Kodangal bandh call and asked the party workers to stage protests across the constituency against the visit of the chief minister.
He was let off, but only after Rao's meeting at Kosigi in the assembly segment got over.
Condemning the police action, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government resorted to it "due to fear of defeat." Telangana goes to polls on 7 December.
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