KARIMNAGAR: As Mark Twain had said, truth is stranger than fiction. The Jammikunta police in Karimnagar district on Friday arrested Congress leader and NSUI Telangana president Balmoori Venkat Narasinga Rao and sent him to judicial remand for “stealing a donkey.” Do police always arrest and put one behind bars for stealing animals? But the police did in this case and slapped several Sections of IPC ranging from unlawful assembly to theft, including Section 11 under the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Act, against him.
What did Balmoori Venkat Narasinga Rao do? He brought a donkey with a cardboard tied around its neck with a picture of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and kept it at the town’s centre for about an hour to take the sting out of CM’s birthday bash. But the police, who took exception to his act, took him into custody.
In the process, the police, unknowingly, became a butt of ridicule when they stated in the remand case diary that they had arrested the Congress leader for stealing a donkey, which meant that he was not at fault for trying to show the CM in poor light.The complainant in the case was Tangutoori Rajkumar, a resident of Jammikunta, who is obviously an ardent follower of Rao. Fired by his love for animals, he sought action against Venkat, though the donkey does not belong to him.
When last heard, no one knows where the donkey is now as the police said they have not yet found it. Maybe they would have to form special teams to search for the asinine species. The point that one cannot miss is that the case was not for insulting the CM but for stealing and causing discomfiture to the animal.
Later in the evening, TPCC president A Revanth Reddy, while condemning the arrest of Venkat, decried the charge of stealing a donkey against him.
He tweeted: “Kalvasuntha kallamunde kanipistundaga Gadida dongatanam case pettadam durmargam (when “idiot” KCR is visible, slamming a case of stealing a donkey is by all means wrong).”
Not at fault for showing CM in poor light?
The police stated in the remand case diary that they had arrested the Congress leader for stealing a donkey, meaning that he was not at fault for trying to show the CM in poor light.