HYDERABAD: On his name being mentioned in the remand report in the Lagcherla attack case, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Thursday wrote on X: “Arrest me! I will walk into the prison with my head held high for standing by the farmers of Telangana! For becoming voice of the voiceless!”.
Brushing aside the conspiracy theory behind the Lagcherla attack, Rama Rao told Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on X: “For a man caught with Rs 50 lakh bribe, everything will seem like a conspiracy! Farmers protesting against your son-in-law’s pharma company will be a conspiracy! Farmers not bowing down to your brother’s threats is a conspiracy! Two people talking on the phone is a conspiracy! People posting their woes on social media is a conspiracy! To stand with poor tribal farmers is a conspiracy!”
Later during an informal chat with reporters, Rama Rao alleged that those BRS workers who were not present at the time of attack on officials too were beaten up by the police.
Attributes attack to intelligence failure
Rama Rao wondered why human rights activists were not speaking on the misrule in the state. Disputing with the police, he said the BRS worker B Suresh, the accused in the case, had farmland. He attributed the attack on officials to police and intelligence failure.
Meanwhile, some of the villagers of Lagcherla had a meeting with Rama Rao at Telangana Bhavan in the evening. The villagers said that the officials threatened them to give their lands for a pharma cluster in Dudyal.
Jyothi, a woman from the village, told Rama Rao that though her husband has nothing to do with the attack, the police beat him up.
Rama Rao demanded that the National and State Human Rights Commissions take suo moto cognizance of the case.
Arrest us but don’t harass farmers: Harish
Meanwhile, former minister T Harish Rao said: “Arrest me, arrest KTR, or any of our MLAs, but do not harass innocent farmers fighting for their lands. This is not justice”.
Addressing the media after meeting Patnam Narender Reddy at the jail, he said that the public dissent is rising across Telangana as people are disillusioned with what he described as “so-called people’s governance.”
“A people’s revolt has begun against Revanth Reddy’s leadership,” Harish Rao said. “In Lagcherla, villagers have been pleading for months to reclaim their lands. Revanth Reddy chooses to use police and hired enforcers to silence those he is representing. Farmers who trusted him now feel utterly betrayed”.
R&B Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, meanwhile, again accused the BRS of instigating the locals to attack Vikarabad District Collector.
Speaking to reporters at Zaheerabad while on his way to Maharashtra to campaign for Congress in the Assembly elections, he said: “KTR has already accepted that Suresh, the main accused in the case, is his supporter,” he said.