Telugu Desam Party activists led by party MP candidate for Eluru Maganti Venkateswara Rao and MLA nominee for Denduluru Chintamaneni Prabhakar staged a demonstration at the I-Town police station here on Thursday, alleging bias by the police in handling a group clash during the polling at Rayanapalem in Denduluru Assembly segment.
Incidentally, the police picked up six persons from Rayanapalem village, reportedly close to Mr. Prabhakar, in connection with the group clash and lodged them in the I-Town police station. The arrests were made following a complaint by Jami Venkata Rao, gunman of YSRC MLA candidate Karumuri Nageswara Rao in Denduluru, who sustained grievous injuries in an alleged stone-pelting by the followers of Mr. Prabhakar. The car of Mr. Nageswara Rao was also partially damaged in the incident.
High drama was witnessed at the police station, when Mr. Prabhakar barged into the police station and tried to set free his followers. He charged that the police acted in a partisan manner in the case allegedly coming under the influence of his rival candidate. He sought to know why the police failed to register a complaint made by his followers on the alleged excesses by the rival group. The protesters relented following an promise by city DSP M. Sittibabu to take steps for registering the complaint lodged by the TDP camp.
