ELURU: A day after the arrest of Chintamaneni Prabhakar, three of his supporters and his lawyer Eedpuganti Srinivas were arrested on Thursday for obstructing police when they had gone to the former MLA’s house to arrest him.
The arrests were made based on a complaint by woman constable Gummadi Marry Grace of the Three-town police. The four persons were booked under Section 291/19 of the Indian Penal Code.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Dilip Kiran said lawyer Srinivas and three of the MLA’s aides Chintamaneni Vishnu, Vempati Prasad and Devarapalli Bakkaiah detained six women police constables at Chintamaneni’s house and even threatened them. They locked the gates and obstructed the police from discharging their duties, the DSP said, adding that the police were examining CCTV footage in connection with the case. Others involved in the obstruction of justice, he said.
The arrested were taken to a government hospital for examination. Later, they were produced before the court, which granted them bail.
After receiving the information that four Chintamaneni followers were arrested, TDP leaders–including Badeti Kotarama Rao, Ganni Veeranjaneyulu, Arimilli Radhakrishna, former ZP chairman Mullapudi Bapiraju and MLC Panduva Srinu--went to the three town police station to meet them. But the police prevented them from meeting the TDP supporters.
Speaking to media later, the leaders alleged that the YSRC government was harassing their party leaders and activists by charging them in false cases. Stating they had met the former MLA in prison, they added that one more relief camp would be set up for victims of YSRC’s ‘abuse’.