Congress MP from Kadapa Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was on Friday afternoon taken into preventive custody to pre-empt his visit to Mahabubad in Warangal district.
Defying the Congress high command's directive, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy had boarded the Inter-City Express train in Secunderabad in the morning to proceed to Mahabubabad, a commercial town in the Telangana heartland. He was to begin the second leg of his “odarpu yatra” (tour to console families of those who ended their lives in the wake of his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's death last September).
AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily had called up Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy on Thursday and asked him to cancel his tour as it would inflame passions once again in the Telangana region.
Hardly had the train travelled about 70 km, it was detained near a wayside railway station, Vangapalli, in Nalgonda district by the police. Even as the train waited for three hours, clashes broke out between Telangana activists and Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy's supporters in Mahabubabad culminating in police firing.
As the situation threatened to get out of hand, police entered the coach in which Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy and informed him about their decision to take him into custody. He was escorted to a waiting vehicle by Additional DCP (Task Force), Hyderabad, V.B. Kamalahasan Reddy and DSP of Bhongir R. Narayan Rao. A case was registered against the MP in Yadagirigutta police station.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy termed his arrest as a conspiracy, part of which his train was deliberately detained at the railway station. "I will not sit quiet after this. I will undertake my yatra later," he added.
