HANAMKONDA : Rajya Sabha MP and national secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Binoy Viswam, was arrested by Subedari police in Hanamkonda on Wednesday. He had arrived in the city to participate in a ‘bhoo poratam’ (land struggle) protest. Hours after the arrest, he was released.
Subedari police laid siege to the Haritha Hotel where the MP was holding a press conference. The cops had already blocked the entry and exit paths. When Binoy came out of the hotel to participate in the agitation, the police obstructed his movement and encircled him. Then, they took him into custody and shifted him to Subedari police station.
Party workers led by CPI State secretariat member T Srinivasa Rao rushed to the police station and started protesting in front of the police station. Speaking to Express, Hanamkonda Assistant Commissioner of Police M Jitender Reddy said Binoy Viswam was taken into preventive custody and released after a while. He stated that if the Rajya Sabha MP participated in a protest, a law and order issue would arise and he was taken into custody as a precautionary measure.
Speaking to the media after his release, Binoy said that Communist parties have always fought against governments in regard to land struggles. “The poor and needy are waiting for their land since 1971, and the CPI was forced to take up the agitation after revenue officials failed to allocate 60 yards of land to the landless persons,” he said.