Police arrest BJP leaders for Hate speech in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: BJP leaders Jiita Balakrishna Reddy, Rani Rudrama, and Dharuvu Yellana were arrested and Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar was issued a notice by the police for allegedly passing defamatory comments against Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

Y. Satish Reddy, member of the TRS social media wing, lodged a complaint at Hayathnagar police station after seeing the video of a skit which was circulated on social media.

The skit was organized by The Telangana BJP unit on June 2 in view of the Telangana Formation Day under the leadership of BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar. According to reports, the party misused the dais and played a hate act with the help of the BJP cultural team. The skit allegedly consisted of insulting remarks against the Chief Minister and the government, "with an intention to mislead the people and provoke hatred."

The skit was video-graphed and telecast by V6 Telugu TV news channel and caused distress among certain groups by disseminating hate speech and provoking hatred which might have caused a threat to the social order.

Based on the complaint a case had been registered Bandi Sanjay and the skit organisers and his team on the charges of insulting persons, provoking people to cause distress and offend individuals on the basis of their association with a particular group.