Protests as KCR held before fast

The former Union minister was arrested near Karimnagar,from where he is the MP,along with party leaders Narasimha Reddy and Vijayrama Rao. Police first took them to Karimnagar and later to Warangal but sensing the tense situation,they produced the three leaders before a magistrate in Khammam town who sent them to jail for 14 days. They are presently lodged at the sub-jail in Khammam. A defiant KCR said he would start his fast-unto-death in the jail.

In Siddipet,TRS MLA Harish Rao,KCR’s nephew,was arrested after he threatened to commit suicide. He had doused himself with kerosene as Rapid Action Force personnel moved in to detain him,but he was overpowered.

As protests on the streets threatened to become violent,with TRS workers pelting stones at buses,even setting some of them on fire,the police arrested TRS ideologue Jayashankar,party’s floor leader in the Assembly E Rajender and KCR’s son and MLA Tarakarama Rao in Warangal and Karimnagar.

The arrests triggered violent protests with at least three persons trying to immolate themselves. Police caned groups of slogan-shouting hostel students at Osmania University in Hyderabad and Kakatiya University at Warangal. Hyderabad Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao issued a statement that a student died on the Osmania campus due to fits and not due to the caning.

Medak MP Vijayashanti was also arrested by the police when she staged a sit-in at the office of the Medak SP.