Social Democratic Forum (SDF) convenor and former IAS officer Akunuri Murali and several others were taken into preventive custody by the Subedari police in the early hours of Tuesday ahead of their proposed meeting with local dwellers of Ambedkar Colony over the alleged delay in allotment of double bedroom flats in Hanamkonda.
According to sources, a police team took them into preventive custody from a hut where they had stayed on Monday night in Ambedkar Colony hours before their proposed meeting.
Police said that a total of eight persons were taken into preventive custody based on an intelligence input that they were planning to enter the 2-BHK units in the locality en-masse to conduct a housewarming ceremony for the local dwellers in an ‘unauthorised manner’.
They were shifted to Subedari police station and released later.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone, Mr. Murali said that he and his colleague Prithviraj were arrested in an undemocratic manner while they were sleeping in a hut in the wee hours of the day.
“We wanted to hold a meeting with the local hut-dwellers of Ambedkar Colony, Balasamudram, at 7 a.m. on allotment of double bedroom houses,” he said, questioning the rationale behind the ‘inordinate delay’ in allotment of the 2-BHK units to the eligible poor people of the locality.
“Around 540 double bedroom flats were constructed five years ago. But they are yet to be allotted to the poor. The hut-dwellers are living in abysmal conditions devoid of basic amenities and desperately waiting for a roof over their head,” he pointed out.
