Tension prevailed in Karimnagar town over the arrest of RTC JAC leaders when they tried to bring the body of RTC driver N. Babu, who died of a cardiac arrest during ‘Sakala Janula Samara Bheri’ in Hyderabad on Wednesday, to his residence at Arepalli, on the outskirts of the town, on Thursday.
The RTC JAC leaders planned to take his body to Karimnagar-2 depot, where he worked, and pay tributes, and later shift it to his house. However, police foiled their attempts by directly shifting the ambulance carrying his body to Arepalli via Bypass Road. The arrested were taken to the nearest police station. Later, some RTC leaders demanded the release of the arrested so that they could take part in the funeral. They also called for a district bandh on Thursday in protest against the “adamant attitude of the TRS government” leading to the death of an RTC bus driver. Leaders of the CPI, CPI(M) and some students’ organisations, made a vain bid to stop buses at the RTC station complex demanding the authorities to observe the bandh. However, police arrested them and shifted them to the Commissionerate training college.
RTC JAC leaders Thomas Reddy and Raji Reddy, MRPS founder president Manda Krishna Madiga, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, TDP district president Ambati Joji Reddy and others staged a dharna at Arepalli demanding the government to hold talks with the RTC JAC leaders and resolve the crisis, and threatened not to conduct the last rites of Babu till then. Police were rushed to Arepalli locality to avoid any untoward incident.
