Telangana Congress leaders detained after protests over raids on party office

Hyderabad: The police in Telangana on Wednesday placed several Congress leaders under house arrest in view of the call given by the party for protest against the police raid on the office of party strategist Sunil Kanugolu over derogatory posts on Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

In view of the call given by the opposition party for protest in all mandal headquarters, police made preventive arrest of the leaders.

The Congress had called upon the cadres to stage protests in all mandal headquarters and set afire effigies of the chief minister in protest against the police raid on party war room in Hyderabad.

Senior leaders Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Mallu Ravi, S. Harivardan Reddy, Rohin Reddy were kept under house arrest.

Sleuths of Cyberabad Cyber crime raided the office of Sunil on Tuesday night following complaints that posts denigrating content against TRS were being posted from that premises.

Congress MP and in charge of party affairs in Telangana, Manickam Tagore alleged that Telangana Congress war room headed by Sunil was raided. He alleged that five of the professional partners were arrested illegally without FIR. He claimed that police took away 50 computers and data was stolen.

Tagore posted on Twitter the controversial posts for which war room was raided. He dared Telangana chief minister to arrest him.

He earlier condemned the high-handedness of the police and made it clear that they won't be cowed down by these threats.

Congress general secretary K. C. Venugopal said that the action of Cyberabad police in seizing the office of Sunil Kanugolu is a blatant attempt to suppress dissent. "It is aimed at defunctioning Telangana Congress war room which is at full swing. Come what may,we will continue our crusade against corruption by Telangana CM & his family," he tweeted.

State Congress chief A Revanth Reddy said that Cyber police terrorising the staff at Congress war room clearly indicates how terrified KCR is of Congress. A He said it was an irony that KCR, his son and daughter have all been preaching about democracy and freedom of speech in recent times.

Four to five policemen in plainclothes had entered the office on Tuesday night and asked the staffer to switch off their mobile phones. Learning about this, senior leader Shabbir, Mallu Ravi and others reached there and questioned the police officers. One of the officers told them that five FIRs were registered for posting derogatory comments.

The Congress leaders wanted to know who the complainants were and insisted that the police produce the FIRs.