T’GANA COPS TOW AWAY SHARMILA’S CAR WHEN SHE WAS HEADING FOR STIR NEAR CM’ S OFFICE

HYDERABAD: High drama ensued in Hyderabad on Tuesday as police towed YSR Telangana party (YSRTP) president Y S Sharmila’s car with her still inside and took her party workers into custody in an attempt to stop her from laying siege to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s official residence. She was detained at the S R Nagar police station later.

Tuesday’s siege was planned to protest the previous day’s clash between workers of the YSRTP and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) at Lingagiri village in Warangal district, in which Sharmila’s caravan was set on fire and car damaged during a padayatra.

Accompanied by her followers, Sharmila on Tuesday left for Pragati Bhavan driving her damaged car, followed by the partially-burnt caravan, when the police stopped her and asked the procession to turn back.

As workers refused to back down, Sharmila refused to step out of the vehicle. Amid the chaos, police took party workers into custody and brought a crane to tow Sharmila’s car away to the SR Nagar police station, some two kilometres from the site of the incident.

Speaking to reporters later, Sharmila said she wanted to seek an explanation from CM Rao on whether it was appropriate for his administration to attack those who questioned his governance. “How can the police stop my padayatra, for which I have taken prior permission, just because I criticise the government policies?” she asked.

Police also detained Sharmila’s mother, Y S Vijayamma, and kept her under house arrest when she made an attempt to go to the police station. Monday’s clash in Warangal came in the backdrop of alleged defamatory comments Sharmila made against local TRS lawmaker P Sudershan Reddy.