HYDERABAD: A massive procession was taken out in the city with the body of P Eshan Reddy, who allegedly ended his life on the Osmania University campus today for the cause of separate Telangana.
Thousands of students and Telangana activists took part in the procession from the campus to the Martyr’s Memorial near the Assembly, as per the last wish of the student while policemen, anticipating trouble, were deployed in large numbers.
As the procession reached the NCC gate, police prevented them from stepping out of the campus. They tried to close the gates but the students forced open them and a scuffle broke out between the police and the protestors.
Clearly outnumbered by the protestors, police were forced to retreat.
As a precautionary measure, all business establishments on the procession route -Vidyanagar, Nallakunta, Narayanguda, Liberty were asked to close down and traffic was diverted at several places leading to severe traffic snarls. TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, BJP senior leader Ch Vidyasagar Rao and Telangana JAC convenor Prof Kodandaram led the procession while TRS legislator T Harish Rao sat in the ambulance in which the body was shifted.
Around 6 p.m, the rally reached the memorial and rich tributes were paid to Eshan Reddy, before it was handed over to his family members. Eshan Reddy of Medak district, who was preparing for GRE after completing engineering, allegedly set himself ablaze near the OU library today morning. A oneand- half litre plastic soft-drink bottle, in which Eshan Reddy, brought petrol was also found in the bag.
“I congratulate all Telangana people for winning the 12 bypolls (elections). I am very sorry to do this,’’ he said.
He reportedly took a vow before the Maisamma Talli to sacrifice himself as a thanksgiving, if PCC chief D Srinivas lost the election. Police suspect Eshan Reddy might have immolated himself well past midnight.
In the note, Eshan Reddy termed Congress leaders D Srinivas, K Jana Reddy, R Damodar Reddy, D Sridhar Babu and IT minister (K Venkat Reddy) and also TDP leaders Nagam Janardhan Reddy, E Dayakar Rao, T Devender Goud and K Srihari as ‘Telangana drohulu’ (traitors).
He asked Chandrasekhar Rao to take up fight against the irrigation projects which are deterrent to Telangana like Polavaram.
“Babu is doing a drama on the issue. You do it real (genuinely),’’ he said.
Further he wanted his body to be kept at the Arts College and later taken out in a ‘yatra’ to Martyr’s Memorial. Yesterday evening, he even sent SMSes to his friends asking them to ‘fight for Telangana unitedly.’ Though Eshan stated that a post-mortem should not be performed, a team of doctors from Gandhi General Hospital conducted an autopsy.