A Telangana activist, who suffered an injury when a teargas shell burst by the police hit him in the temple during the Telangana March held on the Necklace Road here on September 30, died in a corporate hospital on Thursday while undergoing treatment.
Apart from suffering the injury, the victim, G Raji Reddy (34), developed lung-related complications due to inhalation of the teargas.
His death triggered tension at Gandhi Hospital late in the night with activists trying to shift the body to the Gun Park, where a memorial to Telangana Martyrs stands, for paying tributes to him but police foiled their attempt.
Raji Reddy, who hailed from a tiny village of Peddammapet near Ramagundam in Karimnagar district, ran a chicken centre near his house in KPHB Colony and participated in the Telangana movement for three years. On September 30, when the TJAC gave a call for Telangana March, Raji Reddy reached Necklace Road. As violence broke out, police lobbed several rounds of teargas to disperse the protesters. One of the teargas shells hit Raji Reddy on the head and burst. He collapsed due to the injury on the head and also and developed breathing problems due to inhalation of the teargas. Doctors, who participated in the Telangana March, gave him first-aid and rushed him to the Gandhi Hospital. As his condition worsened, he was shifted to Mediciti Hospital where he died on Thursday. His body was shifted to the Gandhi Hospital for conducting an autopsy.
Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman M Kodandaram, BJP MLA G Kishan Reddy and others paid tributes to Raji Reddy and termed the death as a killing by the government. Demanding action against the policemen who were involved in the incident, the TJAC demanded an inquiry into the incident.
Meanwhile, the OUJAC decided to organise protests condemning the `killing’ of Raji Reddy. The OUJAC said they would burn the chief minister in effigy in all the 10 districts of the region. ``The government gave permission to hold the March and created hurdles to those who participated in the it. It is a government killing,’’ TSJAC president P Kailash said.
Late in the night after conducting a post-mortem on the body at the Gandhi Hospital, T activists tried to shift Raji Reddy’s body to Gun Park and pay tributes there. Police arrested Kodandaram, Kishan Reddy and shifted the body to Raji Reddy’s house at Kukatpally.
Telangana activists decided to carry Raji Reddy’s body in a procession in Kukatpally on Friday. His last rites are likely to be performed at his native place in Karimnagar.