Telangana: Five BJP men held for ‘snatching’ cash from election staff

HYDERABAD: Siddipet police on Tuesday arrested five persons, including a woman, in connection with the incident at Lecturers’ Colony in Siddipet town when cash was taken away from election staff after it was seized from the house of a relative of BJP Dubbak candidate M Raghunandan Rao on Monday. Cash of Rs 27,500 was seized from three of those arrested.
The Siddipet I Town police officials, who examined the videos and photographs taken by the election personnel and police, identified those involved in grabbing the cash from the bag of a head constable who was carrying it after its seizure at Surabhi Anjan Rao’s house.
BJP spokesperson K Krishna Sagar Rao said, “This is below the belt politics by the TRS regime. BJP strongly condemns the arrests.”
The accused were booked for offences under IPC sections for unlawful assembly, rioting and sections related to resisting the taking of any property by a lawful authority or any public servant among other sections. Sections of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, too have been invoked. Police said the five persons confessed to their involvement in the incident. They were produced before a magistrate and sent to judicial remand.
The arrested were identified as Ragula Vineeth (23) of Boppapur village in Dubbak mandal from whom Rs 10,000 was recovered, Elikanti Suresh (28) of Jaligama village in Gajwel mandal from whom Rs 7,500 was recovered and Govindagiri Sudha Reddy of Dharmajipeta in Dubbak mandal from whom Rs 10,000 was recovered. Sudha Reddy is a BJP Mahila Morcha secretary. The two other arested were Gudem Amarendar Reddy (24) of Imambad in Siddipet mandal and Ramaram Vamsi (20) of in Dubbak mandal.
Police said 30 BJP workers were involved in the incident. “The others have also been identified. They will be traced soon and arrested,” Task Force ACP Surendra said. Among those absconding include Akula Naresh of Chellapur, Gundla Janardhan of Siddipet, Doodi Srikanth of Tadkapally, Sanjeeva Reddy and others, police said. Meanwhile, three companies of central forces had arrived in Siddipet to supplement the local security. Davis said: “We are investigating the case and will bring out the conspiracy angle, if there is any.” Police released videos taken by election team Anjan Rao’s house, who was seen explaining from whom he had gotten the money. The video showed a family member bringing a packet of money.