The Hindu : Front Page : Bid to search Chiranjeevi’s hotel room

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Thursday, Apr 23, 2009
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Bid to search Chiranjeevi’s hotel room

S. Nagesh Kumar

HYDERABAD: A day-long political drama was witnessed in Tirupati on Wednesday when the police tried to search the rooms in a hotel booked by Praja Rajyam president K. Chiranjeevi and his supporters.

This followed a series of demonstrations staged by Congress workers outside the hotel alleging that Mr. Chiranjeevi, who is locked in a tight contest for the Tirupati Assembly constituency with the former TTD chairman, B. Karunakar Reddy, was disbursing money for Thursday’s election from his hotel room. Praja Rajyam supporters raised slogans accusing the Congress government of ordering the searches. The police then used force to disperse the rivals.

There was further trouble when the police insisted on searching Mr. Chiranjeevi’s suite, but the film star wanted it done in the presence of the media.

He accused the ruling party of letting loose a reign of terror in Tirupati by forcing people to stay indoors and criticised the police for trying to raid his room just because “a bunch of party workers” wanted it.

In a separate development, Mr. Reddy voluntarily took police personnel and journalists around his house to look for any hidden money.

Chief Electoral Officer I.V. Subba Rao announced deployment of two extra platoons of police at Tirupati.

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