AP cops lawless: Even CM, His Cabinet Helpless In Reining In Cops, Says The High Court

Hyderabad: The AP police seem to be not answerable to anybody and even the CM and his cabinet are helpless in controlling the actions of the men in khaki, justice L Narasimha Reddy of the High Court observed on Tuesday. Angry with the police for not complying with his order on Monday to leave the Osmania University campus, the judge directed joint police commissioner of Hyderabad P S R Anjaneyulu to appear before the court on Thursday and explain the police action on the OU campus on Sunday and Monday. The order came while the judge was hearing a petition filed by M Narsing Rao, the ABN Andhrajyoti reporter who was beaten black and blue by the cops and whose vehicle had been set ablaze on the campus on Monday. The scribe showed to the judge the injuries he suffered and demanded that the police department bear his medical expenses and order a magisterial inquiry into the attack.

Justice Narasimha Reddy said: The state police are a lawless lot and accountable to none. It looks like they are acting at the behest of somebody. The CM as well as the cabinet appear to be helpless if their statement that they did not witness the incidents on the campus is any indication. We do not find such kind of a situation in any other part of the country. Even in Bihar, the police obey some agency. Its all the more unfortunate that such things are happening at a time when a renowned former police officer is the governor of the state. His presence should act as a deterrent on the police. But the reverse is happening, he said. The judge lambasted DGP R R Girish Kumar for not respecting his Mondays order. The DGP is busy in fighting his own litigation. He is in need of a court order to continue in the post, but he does not respect an order from the same court. Let Amnesty International step. This court had ordered the withdrawal of the forces and removal of the barricades on the OU campus. But when I passed by OU this morning, the barricades were still there, he said.

The judge said that even general Dyer (responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre) could not escape the censure by the British parliament for his actions. But there is none here to question the lawlessness among our police. There are several Dyers here and your government is not competent enough to control them, he judge told additional advocate general A Satya Prasad. The judge told the government to bear the medical expenses of the scribe and also directed it to file an affidavit stating the reasons that led to the OU incidents . The matter will come up for hearing again on Thursday.
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HC Turns Down Govt Plea On RAF In OU


Hyderabad: Daring the Hyderabad police commissioner to concede that he is unable to control the law and order situation in the city in order to justify the continued presence of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and other paramilitary forces on the Osmania University campus, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by the state government challenging the singlejudge Benchs order of Monday that directed all security personnel to move out of the campus. While dismissing the appeal, the division bench comprising acting chief justice T Meena Kumari and justice G Chandraiah said: We do not see any reason as to why we should interfere in the order of the single-judge bench when the actions of the RAF, particularly the ones like ill-treating girl students, switching off power and firing tear gas shells in the darkness etc, are staring at us.

Advocate general D V Sitarama Murthy explained to the bench that the state government was not against the students and that the paramilitary forces were deployed on the campus only after they found no response from Osmania University vice chancellor T Tirupati Rao to the letters written by city police commissioner AK Khan in which the latter had referred to the presence of non-boarders on the campus.
What is the evidence that you have for requisitioning the deployment of RAF. Under the guise of one or two violent incidents, you cannot continue the forces like RAF here. Forces like the RAF are under nobody and listen to none. Better have the local police forces, or tell us if your local authorities have pleaded helplessness in controlling the conditions here, the bench told the AG. The division bench then held that the OU vice-chancellor and the Hyderabad police commissioner should first declare that things are going out of control. Only then can you ask for the deployment of RAF, the bench said and dismissed the states appeal thereby making it mandatory for the state to withdraw the forces from the campus.

Top police sources said they had effected a gradual but slow withdrawal of forces from the Osmania University campus from Tuesday morning in the hope that the appeal against the high court order of Monday would be heard in their favour. Now that it has been dismissed , we have no choice but to withdraw all forces, one official said.
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Injured students now look for ways to evade arrest - Want To Stay Put In Hospital Than Go To Prison

Hyderabad: Students who sustained injuries in police lathicharge on the Osmania University campus on Sunday and were admitted to the Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital are now wary of getting discharged. They fear the police would arrest them owing to charges as serious as attempt to murder filed against them. On Tuesday afternoon, one such student who is an OU Joint Action Committee member and had been taking refuge in the hospital in the guise of undergoing treatment for a minor leg injury he had suffered during the police lathicharge, was allegedly manhandled by the Task Force personnel near Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital. Another student, who did not wish to be identified, claimed that as soon as he stepped out of the hospital, he was nabbed by police personnel in plain clothes. However, he managed to escape from their clutches.

Due to fear of arrest, some OU students , though declared fit for discharge , preferred to stay in D D Hospital for some more time. There was an attempt to arrest a student from the hospital by a few policemen in plain clothes while he was stepping out even on Tuesday morning. Hence, I chose to remain in the hospital to evade arrest, said an OU JAC member at D D Hospital where presently six students are undergoing treatment . Other students also added that due to inadequate facilities, they preferred hospital to the OU campus.

The police has slapped attempt to murder cases on most of the students who participated in the protests. One more student who had suffered a leg injury during the lathicharge on Monday was admitted in Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital on Tuesday. Currently, two other students are taking treatment at Poulomi Hospital, A S Rao Nagar and one more female student at Aditya Hospital. One student, Bhaskar, who suffered a severe head injury, was shifted to Yashoda Hospital for a brain CT Scan. Meanwhile, help came pouring in from all possible quarters for the injured students of Osmania University at the hospitals on Tuesday. Locals and a few professors who visited them went about distributing eatables and offered even financial assistance. Packets of fruits and juices along with breakfast was distributed by local residents of the area. Further, at Manikeshwar Nagar, near the Tarnaka gate of the campus, locals as well as research scholars of OU staying in the area set up a food court for the students. Medicos from Osmania General Hospital too came to the rescue of the students. With the University Health Centre dysfunctional, two rooms in the B Hostel of the campus have been converted into clinic where emergency first aid is being provided to the injured.
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T-activists disrupt film shooting


Hyderabad: Telangana activists disrupted yet another movie shoot in Hayathnagar on Tuesday. Nearly 50 activists, raising Jai Telangana slogans, landed at Vanasthali Hills in Tatti Annaram in Hayathnagar where an untitled movie being produced by Arya Entertainment was being filmed. The film crew immediately stopped the shoot. The activists then inquired about the origins of the crew and realised that lead actor Krishnudu of Vinayakudu and Village lo Vinayakudu fame was from non-Telangana region. So, they went to Krishnudu, who is the lead actor in the movie, and asked him to say Jai Telangana . The actor immediately said Jai Telangana . As there was no prior permission from police for the shoot, the crew was advised to stop filming and get permission from the Cyberabad commissioner
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Kanchi seers T-take raises TRS hackles - Sankaracharya Says Bifurcation Of AP Will Help Maoists & Missionaries
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Guntur: Raking up a new controversy in the wake of the ongoing agitation for a separate Telangana state, Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi said on Tuesday that bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh would only help Maoists and missionaries to make further gains. He was of the view that the division of AP would be disastrous. Addressing reporters here, the seer said Maoists activities posed a grave threat to the internal security of the country. The naxalites will flourish and get stronger in small states like Telangana, he observed. The pontiff wondered why a state where all the people speak Telugu be bifurcated at all. He said the people of Telangana were not bothered about the separate state as their lives were not going to change overnight. Taking a dig at TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and others, he said: The demand for the separate state is the brainchild of some political leaders who have vested interests. The seer, who is here on a three-day visit, said that the people of Telangana region want to live in harmony with others. Some of the leaders are behind the agitation, he said. The Sankaracharya pleaded for unity of the country and the state in particular . Deploring linguistic chauvinism, he said in Telugu, We are Indians and Hindus first. He alleged that gullible people are being lured by the missio-naries . Hindus will become minorities if the trend of religious conversions is not countered, he warned. He said weaker sections and downtrodden classes were being lured by the missionaries by offering them monetary support. Religious conversions will be easier in smaller states, the Kanchi seer said.

TRS seeks apology from Kanchi seer

TRS on Tuesday demanded an unconditional apology from Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi to the Telangana people. If he fails to do so, he will not be allowed to move in the region, TRS senior leader T Harish Rao said. Rao said the pontiff does not know the history of Telangana and the backwardness of the region. TNN
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CHANGE OF STANCE -T Congress leaders develop cold feet

Hyderabad: The dinner hosted by chief minister K Rosaiah for the Congress MLAs and MLCs on Tuesday night is seen as the celebration of total surrender of the Telangana protagonists in the party.
The last rebellious voice of MLAs R Damodar Reddy and Ch Mutyam Reddy is being taken care of by the party high command in New Delhi while the other T-group in the party is totally silenced. Both the MLAs, who have been summoned by the party high command to the national capital, are expected to get back much mellowed. From now onwards, neither the seniors nor the young legislators will create any problem to the chief minister on the Tissue . At most, they may broach the subject in panel discussions hosted by the electronic media and submit petitions to the party high command if necessary, said a senior leader.

Before they were silenced, the T Congress advocates had on Tuesday sent a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi through Damodar Reddy and Mutyam Reddy stating as to how the terms of reference of the Srikrishna committee were against Telangana. Party sources said this letter would be the last correspondence between the high command and T rebels in the party on the contentious issue. We have placed our apprehension about the commission before the high command. What else can we do now when a commission has been appointed, an MLA said. On Tuesday, no T-Congress MLA raised his voice in support of the TDP when the latter stalled the assembly proceedings on the issue of police action against the students of Osmania University.

The refusal of the T Congress leaders to toe the line of the TRS in submitting the resignations to the Speaker in protest against the terms of reference of the Srikrishna panel is a victory of sorts for the party high command. This is then end of defiance by the Congress leaders, the leader said. By Tuesday, senior leaders like K Jana Reddy had become totally silent. Congress Working Committee member K Keshava Rao, who made his Jubilee Hills residence a centre for T activities in recent days, too has suddenly become tongue-tied . Vocal MLCs who had a good rapport with TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao were also not inclined to toe the TRS line fearing reprisal from the party high command. The office rooms in New MLA quarters, which served as the rendezvous for many a T-meetings , are practically deserted now. According to sources, the spectre of president rule and the threat of disciplinary action at the individual level are said to the reasons behind the wholesale surrender of all T leaders in the party.
We have no option but to remain spectators while the TRS carries the movement forward one way or the other, an MLC told TOI. In the backdrop that the chief minister hosted a dinner for all Congress legislators and MLCs on Tuesday night. It is unusual for a chief minister to host a dinner exclusively for the party colleagues in the assembly and council at the beginning of the session. With the T leaders silenced, Rosaiah wants to begin afresh, said another leader.
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Telangana activists continue protests


Hyderabad: Pro-Telangana activists continued to besiege the houses of MLAs and other public representatives in Warangal, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Khammam , Medak and other T-districts on the second day of the protest on Tuesday. At Hanamkonda, the protesters hurled eggs and tomatoes at the house of Warangal district Congress chief and MLA Gandra Venkataramana Reddy. Some even pelted stones, while advocates laid a siege to his house demanding his immediate resignation from the posts he was holding. In a symbolic protest, the agitators performed Srimantham (the seventh month ceremony conducted for pregnant women) for medical education minister P Sudarshan Reddy in Bodhan and Banswada MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (TDP) by making two persons pose as pregnant women. Their anger was over the minister and the MLAs refusal to quit their posts.

The house of TDP Kamareddy MLA Gampa Goverdhan was targeted when the protesters pelted cow dung on the nameplate. In Adilabad, Telangana sympathizers staged a demonstration in front of Adilabad MLA Jagu Ramanna and Boath legislator Nageshs houses. The agitators also besieged the house of Gajwel MLA Narsareddy in Medak district. Lawyers in Nizamabad conducted a mock court and awarded death sentence to the chiefs of various political parties for deceiving the people of Telangana region. Students of Giriraj Government College at Dubba in Nizamabad town took out a death procession of PCC chief D Srinivas and cremated his effigy at the college premises demanding his resignation from the party post.
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(source-toi)