Telangana Formation Day skit: Two artists arrested for insulting KCR

Hyderabad: Rachakonda Police have arrested two artists for insulting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao during the Telangana Formation Day event.

The artists have been identified as Barupatla Raju (38) from Warangal and Kommu Sriramulu(38) from Suryapet. Both of them had staged a skit during the event.

Earlier, on June 12, Hayathnagar Police station issued a notice to BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay under Section 41A of the CrPC asking him to appear before the cops.

Three BJP members have been arrested in connection with the case. Jitta Balakrishna Reddy was arrested on 10 June, while Rani Rudrama and Dharuvu Yellannaand were arrested on 14 June.

On June 2, BJP's Telangana unit led by Bandi Sanjay and organizers Jitta Balakrishna Reddy and Rani Rudrama, organized an event on Telangana Formation Day. During the event, the BJP performed a skit allegedly insulting KCR.

Later Y. Sathish Reddy, TRS social media convenor, lodged a complaint at the Hayathnagar police station stating that the BJP Telangana unit had misused the platform to defame the government schemes and leveled false accusations against the CM and mislead the people and evoke hatred and unrest.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered in the Hayathnagar police station against Bandi Sanjay, Jitta Balakrishna Reddy, Rani Rudrama, and Boddu Yellanna, a member of the BJP's cultural team that put up the skit.

Police said that from the video it was evident that the organizers misused the dais and the event that was organized to celebrate the Telangana Formation Day. It was used to make derogatory comments and personal attacks. They depicted the Chief Minister in a derogatory manner and indulged in personal attacks and hate speech, the police found.

The skit was telecast by V6, a Telugu TV news channel. Disseminating/telecasting the hate speech to provoke hatred among groups posed a threat to the democratic order and caused distress among certain groups, it was opined.

Police said that after careful examination of the video content, it was established that the BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay and the organizers Jitta Balakrishna Reddy, Rani Rudrama, Boddu Yellanna, and his team attacked a democratically-elected person who is holding a constitutional post of the Chief Minister of Telangana.