Hyderabad (The Hawk): In order to protest the alleged attack by TRS supporters on her padyatra in Warangal district on Monday, YSRTP leader Y.S. Sharmila was driving to the Chief Minister's official residence on Tuesday when her car was hauled away by local police.
The leader of the YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) was driving the automobile as she made her way to Pragathi Bhavan in protest of the attack by the state's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
She was stopped by police en route. The police hired a crane to tow the car with the YSRTP leader sitting in it away because Sharmila refused to get out of it.
Sharmila, the sister of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, was detained and taken to S.R. Nagar Police Station.
She resisted getting out of the car until they arrived at the police station. Police officers pried open the car door for her and dragged her into the police station.
Some YSRTP employees who arrived at the police station to hold the demonstration were detained in the meanwhile.
She was the subject of a case that was opened at Panjagutta Police Station. The case was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 327, 333, and 353, which prohibit intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm on a public servant in order to prevent him from performing his official duties (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property, or to constrain to an illegal act)
As she was heading to the S.R. Nagar Police Station to visit Sharmila's mother, Y.S. Vijayamma, the police put her under house arrest.
Vijayamma was not permitted by the police to leave her Jubilee Hills home.
With the help of her followers, Vijayamma started a demonstration outside the house.
She criticised the way the cops treated her daughter. She claimed that the state administration was attempting to take away the democratic right of citizens to voice their concerns.
Sharmila led a protest march toward the chief minister's home in Begumpet with the help of her followers.
Police stopped them as they got to Raj Bhavan Road near Yashoda Hospital.
The YSRTP workers chanted anti-government slogans. Police stopped them as they attempted to move closer to the chief minister's mansion.
The padyatra bus that was stoned and set on fire by TRS activists on Monday was also part of the YSRTP's protest march.
When Sharmila was travelling through the area as part of her Praja Prasthanam Yatra, her Yatra bus and other vehicles were attacked in Narasmpet in the Warangal district.
The YSRTP claimed that TRS members attacked the Padayatra indiscriminately, stoned and set a bus on fire, used foul language, and tore down banners and party flags.
Later, the police detained Sharmila on the grounds that she had refused to stop the foot march despite their suggestion to do so given the hostile circumstances in the neighbourhood.
On Monday night, the police later moved the YSRTP leader to Hyderabad. She made it clear during a press conference that her yatra and the fight against the TRS crimes will continue.
Sharmila claimed that she will march for the 4-million Telangana residents who supported her and that she would not be intimidated by the "rowdies and rogues of TRS."
She started marching towards Pragati Bhavan to continue her protest in order to "get an explanation from KCR" and "find out if this is part of his governance that anyone who questioned his government's failings and tyranny had to be attacked and harmed."
Police also detained other party officials who participated in a protest at the party's office in Jubilee Hills.
(Inputs from Agencies)