Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday said that no violation of COVID-19 protocols had taken place during the protest by Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and he was arrested supporting the protest of the Telangana Government Teacher Association in the State.

Sanjay Kumar was arrested for violating COVID-19 protocols while holding a protest in Karimnagar. He, along with five others, was booked under sections 188, 332, 333, 149, 147 of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act.

Reddy said, “No violation of COVID-19 protocols has taken place during the protest. Sanjay Kumar was protesting against the Telangana government’s anti-people policy. He was supporting the protest of the Telangana Government Teacher Association in the state. And that is the reason he was arrested.”

He further said, “The state government has adopted and implemented anti-people policies in Telangana and the voters of the state will teach them a lesson.”
On Monday, BJP chief JP Nadda called the arrest of Kumar the “murder of democracy”.

“The arrest of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay is highly condemnable and amounts to the murder of democracy. He was peacefully staging a protest following all COVID protocols in his office. Police forcibly entered his office & manhandled him,” said Nadda.

“K Chandrashekhar Rao government has gone mad seeing BJP’s victory in recent bypolls and the support that our party is receiving in the state. We will take all legal and democratic recourse against the police action,” he added. (ANI)