TIRUPATI: Commotion and chaos prevailed for sometime during a roadshow of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in Kuppam on Friday when party cadres caught and assaulted a person suspecting that he was in possession of an explosive. As the word spread that the person was in possession of a crude bomb, security staff and NSG commandos guarding the former chief minister, at one point of time, had to deploy the ballistic shield to cover the TDP chief.
It all started when a huge rally, taken out by TDP cadre to welcome Naidu on the first day of his visit to Kuppam, reached the R&B guest house. The TDP workers caught a person accusing him of carrying explosives to attack their leader and started thrashing him. Naidu had to stop his speech to know what was going on and as the word reached those present on the dais that there might be an ‘attack,’ the security personnel surrounded Naidu and deployed the ballistic shield in front of him as a cover.
A few seconds later, Naidu asked them to remove the jacket but the commandos and police remained alert till the local police intervened and caught hold of the ‘suspect.’ He was shifted to a safer place and police came to know that the person, identified as Mohan, was a hotel employee, and had no explosives. He was later let off.Meanwhile, a few tore apart flexes of YSRC MP PV Midhun Reddy erected in Kuppam. Naidu accused police of not giving enough protection to his roadshow.
A hotel staffer
The suspect who was thrashed by TDP cadre at Naidu’s meet, was found to be a hotel staffer, Mohan