Police on Thursday took Union Minister for Culture and Tourism and Telangana state BJP president G. Kishan Reddy into preventive custody as he was heading to Bata Singaram village near Hyderabad to inspect the construction of double bedroom houses for the poor under a state government scheme.
Police took Kishan Reddy into custody near Shamshabad Airport on the city outskirts and shifted him to a police station.
BJP MLA M. Raghunandan Rao, former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and others were also taken into custody.
The police stopped the Union minister, MLA and others when they were proceeding towards Bata Singaram as per the planned visit to see the progress of the work at the site. Kishan Reddy took objection to the police action.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner D.S. Chauhan told him that there was no permission to visit the village and asked the BJP leaders to cooperate with the police in maintaining law and order.
Kishan Reddy, Raghunandan Rao and others sat on the road amid the rain. Kishan Reddy had an argument with the police commissioner.
Alleging that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government has failed to deliver on its promise to build houses for the poor, the BJP leaders wanted to see the progress of the work at Bata Singaram, one of the sites for the housing project.
A delegation of 60 leaders led by Kishan Reddy had planned to visit the village.
However, the police placed several BJP leaders under house arrest to prevent them from leaving for the village.
Police also detained other BJP leaders who were trying to head towards Bata Singaram from other places.
Those placed under house arrest include BJP national vice-president D. K. Aruna, MLA Eatala Rajender, former MP Jitehender Reddy and former MLC Ramachandra Rao
Earlier, Kishan Reddy took to Twitter to condemn the house arrest of his party leaders. "It yet again exposes the tyrannical rule under BRS. High-handedness and muzzling of opposition voice has become the hallmark of KCR govt," he tweeted.
Kishan Reddy was recently appointed as the president of state BJP in place of Bandi Sanjay Kumar. This was the first protest planned by the party under the new state chief.