Vijaya shanthi arrested, freed

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Enacting a mid-road drama that had motorists cursing, the police on Saturday arrested the Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP, Ms Vijaya shanthi, for making an inflammatory speech exhorting party cadre to chop off the hands of those who opposed Telagana.

Likewise, the police also took into custody the Congress MLA, Mr T. Jayaprakash Reddy, who made an equally incendiary speech against TRS workers the other day. The Election Commission had issued a notice to him. The Banjara Hills police, which searched Ms Vijaya shanthi’s house in the morning, arrested her at noon while she was on her way to Medak for a party function. Cops blocked her convoy near the L.V. Prasad Eye hospital on Banjara Hills area, throwing traffic out of gear at peak hour. However, the former actor-turned-politician refused to come out of the car and sat inside it defiantly with all the windows closed as TRS activists assembled and shouted slogans against cops. A police officer then pulled out the driver of the car and seized the steering wheel. Seeing the cop taking over the wheel, the MP came out of the car in a huff and had a heated exchange of words with the police. Cops scuffled with a crowd of angry TRS activists to take her away. Ms Vijaya shanthi, who was produced before the third additional metropolitan magistrate, Mr Laxmaiah, was sent to 14 days’ judicial remand but was later released on bail. She has been charged under Sections 505(2) and I53(a) of IPC for promoting enmity between groups and for violating the election code.
Though the MP initially refused bail after being taken to the special prison for women at Chanchalguda, she later agreed to it on the advice of the TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and was released in the evening on a surety of Rs 1,000.
Ms Vijayashanti lashed out at the police after coming out on bail and said their behaviour was outrageous. “I have been ill since I had undergone an operation recently and I was waiting for the police at my home since 6 am today,” she said. “But they picked me up right in the middle of the road as if I am a thief.”