Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Virasam) leader Varavara Rao and 10 others were taken into custody when they staged a protest near the chief minister’s camp office at Begumpet in the city on Thursday against the attack on former Maoist leader Ganti Prasadam in Nellore district.
Rao and others went to meet the chief minister and seek his intervention for shifting of Prasadam, who is in a critical condition, to Hyderabad for better treatment. But the security staff detained them at the entrance gate since they did not have an appointment with the chief minister.
The activists then staged a dharna and shouted slogans against the police. Varavara Rao alleged that Prasadam was attacked by plainclothes policemen and demanded action against the policemen.
Assistant commissioner of police, Punjagutta, D Venkat Narsaiah and inspector N Tirupathi rushed to the spot along with their men and took Rao and 10 others into custody.
Traffic on the Begumpet-Greenlands- Somajiguda stretch came to a halt for more than half an hour with the heavy police security at the CM’s camp office as a precautionary measure. Traffic police plunged into action to clear traffic snarls.