PD Act invoked against BJP MLA Raja Singh; taken to Cherlapally jail

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party's Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh was detained under the Preventive Detention Act on 25 August by the Mangalhat police as per the orders of the Hyderabad commissioner of police. The MLA has been taken to Cherlapally jail.

"The detenu, T. Raja Singh Lodh, has been habitually delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches and driving a wedge between communities leading to public disorder," read the Hyderabad city police order.

On 22 August, Raja Singh posted a controversial video on Shree Ram Telangana, a YouTube channel, where he made derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad.

The Hyderabad police said he had done this with an intention to provoke all sections of people and thereby cause a breach of peace and public tranquility.

On 23 August, when Raja Singh was arrested, he reiterated that the police are making efforts to remove his speech from YouTube but that will not deter him from posting further speeches and videos.

"Offensive speech has real and devastating effects on people's lives and risks their health and safety and severely affects fraternity, the dignity of individuals, unity and national integration and also offends the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India," the police noted.

They added, "When the video went viral, protests erupted in different parts of Hyderabad city and other parts of Telangana and drove a wedge between communities…Sensing danger to life and properties in the hands of the protesters, people panicked and closed their shops and establishments. The entire population of the city and the state were gripped by fear and shock by his activity. By his blasphemous utterances, the proposed detenu has been continuously creating hatred and ill-will between major communities resulting in widespread unrest among the people within the limits of Hyderabad city police commissionerate and in other parts of Telangana state, thereby adversely affecting the maintenance of public order."

Further, the police said Raja Singh has been continuously causing widespread fear, unrest, and panic among the general public for a long time by committing such offenses and acting in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order apart from disturbing the peace, tranquility and communal harmony in society.

In the order, the police also said that out of the total 101 criminal cases registered against him since 2004, he was involved in 18 communal offenses in different police stations of Hyderabad commissionerate.