Hyderabad: Ramagundam police Wednesday arrested BRS leader and former MLA Balka Suman and three associates in connection with the alleged stone-pelting incident targeting the convoy of minister G. Vivek Venkataswamy at Kyathanpally. They were produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.Ramakrishnapur police had registered two cases late Tuesday against Suman and other BRS activists for allegedly blocking the minister’s convoy and attacking it with stones during the municipal chairman and vice-chairman election process. Police arrested Suman from his residence in Kyathanpally amid protests by BRS workers. Three other accused, Mula Raji Reddy, Anil, and Ramidi Laxmikanth, were arrested from their homes in Mancherial district.“Our constable, D Rakesh, sustained a grievous head injury. He is undergoing surgery in a Secunderabad hospital. The accused were produced before a local court in Mancherial and sent in judicial remand to Adilabad prison,” Ramagundam police commissioner Ambar Kishor Jha said.The first case was filed based on a complaint by sub-inspector A Gangaram of Devapur police station. He stated that his team was on bandobust duty at the Kyathanpally flyover when Suman and his supporters arrived in vehicles. “When I did not allow the vehicles into Kyathanpally, they kept arguing with me. During that time, minister Vivek and MP Gaddam Vamshi came that way, proceeding to the municipal office to use their ex-officio votes. Suman and other accused shouted slogans against Congress functionaries and hurled stones. In the stone-pelting, Rakesh, a constable of Chennur police station, suffered a severe head injury and S Rajashekar, SI of Kothapalli police station, suffered an injury to his finger,” the SI said.Based on the complaint, police booked Suman and seven others under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including unlawful assembly, rioting, rioting with deadly weapons, voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter a public servant from duty, and disobedience to an order promulgated by a public servant. A second case was registered on a complaint by Gopu Raja, 50, a Congress supporter from Ramakrishnapur, who alleged that Suman and other BRS activists damaged the minister’s vehicle and attacked a local Congress worker, Javid.
