Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadres in the city on Tuesday lashed out at Islamic University chairperson and CEO of Heera Group of Companies Nowhera Shaik, who accused the party members of blackmail and alleged that they tagged students as terrorists.
Taking stock of recent exchanges between the party and Heera Group on setting up of an Islamic University on the outskirts of Tirupati, the party’s State official spokesperson G. Bhanu Prakash Reddy said: “Ms. Nowhera claims that BJP is blackmailing them. All we wanted was an inquiry into the irregularities in the varsity’s construction. We need not have an open discussion as challenged, if she can answer our questions.”
Making a point by point observation, he said that the FIR filed by AIMIM president and MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Ms. Nowhera was still being investigated by Enforcement Directorate. “Besides this, she constructed five additional floors when she had permission for G+1 from TUDA. Even the site has been encroached into the ‘tank poramboke’ land of Thimmappa temple,” he added.
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BJP city president and advocate K. Ajay Kumar reiterated that his party was not against minorities and their education system. “Our demands are straightforward and we are not making comments to incite people. We just do not want them to be cheated under this mask,” he added.
The members demanded immediate action against the Heera Group and further announced to meet the Governor and Chief Minister to apprise them on the need to bring in a law to ban construction of religion-related universities within 50-km radius of Tirupati.