Hyderabad: YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) chief YS Sharmila was taken into custody by the Rachakonda police on Tuesday after she and her followers visited the family of a student who died of suicide at Boduppal.
YSRTP functionaries alleged that the party was first given permission to conduct the protest, but that it was rejected later. On Tuesday, Sharmila also announced that she would also undertake a ‘Padayatra’ across the state from October 2.
Sharmila along with a few 100 of her followers staged a dharna after she met the family of Ravindra Naik, a student of Osmania University who died by suicide earlier. The Rachakonda police, in a press release, said that the inspector of the Medipally police station had visited a spot at Peerzadiguda where the party first wanted to hold a protest and sought permission for the same.
After the visit on Saturday, the police advised YS Sharmila against the dharna as Peerzadiguda, where the protest was supposed to take place. The area was abutting the National Highway between Warangal and Hyderabad and considering the shortage of parking space the dharna was dubbed unadvisable by the police.
The National Highway is on repair and there was the possibility of traffic congestion. The organizers were requested to choose an alternate place.
Despite the discussion on Saturday, Sharmila along with 500 of her supporters visited Peerzadiguda on Tuesday and organised a hunger strike following which the protestors staged a ‘Rastha roko'(Stop the path) which resulted in a traffic jam on the highway.
As a result of the same, the protestors including Sharmila were taken into preventive custody. Sharmila was released soon after but the protestors were taken to the police station.
