Tense situations were witnessed before the last rites of RTC driver N. Babu were performed by his family members at the Arepalli village crematorium on the outskirts of Karimnagar town on Friday evening.
The RTC driver died of heart-attack at the Sakala Janula Samara Bheri meeting in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening. Though the RTC JAC leaders planned to shift his body to the Karimnagar RTC 2 depot in the town, the police took the body to his residence in Arepalli during early hours of Thursday.
On Thursday, the RTC JAC leaders and the Opposition parties refused to conduct the funeral of Mr. Babu demanding that the government to hold talks and resolve the RTC crisis. BJP Member of Parliament from Karimnagar Bandi Sanjay, MRPS founder Manda Krishna Madiga, Congress, TDP and Left parties leaders staged a dharna at the body throughout the night.
On Friday, the body, which was kept in a body-freezer, started decomposing due to technical snag in the machine. At this juncture, the RTC JAC leaders and Opposition parties decided to take the funeral procession up to RTC bus station. Accordingly, the family members started the preparations for last rites and started the procession. After the procession started and travelled a distance accompanied by leaders of RTC-JAC, the BJP, the Congress, the TDP and the Left parties, the police stepped in and prevented the leaders and RTC employees from proceeding further. The police cleverly diverted the opposition parties’ leaders and JAC leaders and directed the funeral procession to the Arepalli crematorium and allowed only family members and close relatives to attend the last rites.
A huge contingent of police blocked the entry of opposition parties’ leaders towards crematorium and made them proceed only towards Karimnagar town. In the melee, a police official had reportedly caught hold of the MP by his shirt collar.
Irked by the adamant attitude of the State government in resolving crisis and police highhandedness, Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, former MP G. Vivekanand, former legislator Bodige Shoba along with their supporters staged a rasta roko at Court cross roads.
The Congress leaders led by TPCC working president and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, MLC T. Jeevan Reddy and Manthani MLA D. Sridhar Babu and others staged rasta roko in front of SRR College. They were participating in the ‘vanta varpu’ programme blocking traffic on the busy road.
