Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Corporator held, sent in remand

VIJAYAWADA: The clash between independent corporator Mahadevu Appaji, who recently joined the Praja Rajyam, and TDP corporator I. Sailaja of 34th division in One Town on Sunday led to the arrest and judicial remand of the former and three of his associates on Monday.

The Kothapeta police, who registered cases under Sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 427 (mischief causing damage to property), 448 (mischief by maiming or killing animal) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) against Appaji and his associates on Sunday, arrested him on Monday morning and produced him in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.

The Magistrate sent Appaji and his followers to 14-day judicial remand.

The sections under which he was arrested are, however, bailable, and he is likely to move an application for bail on Tuesday.

The filing of cases and the arrest was preceded by much drama in Kothapeta police station on Sunday, after followers of the two corporators clashed over attempts made by Appaji’s group to close an age-old tank on the premises of Subrahmanyeswara Swami temple.

Appaji had been agitating for a long time demanding closure of the polluted tank, alleging that it had caused serious health problems to people of the area.

When his followers reached the temple on Sunday morning to close the tank, Sailaja and her husband Srinivasa Rao, a trustee of the temple, prevented them from doing so.

In the melee, Appaji allegedly caught Sailaja by her hand and abused her.

The woman corporator, who received support from her party leaders, staged a sit-in fast at Nehru Bomma centre and filed a case against Appaji and several of his associates.

Though the police tried to counsel them not to file cases against each other, Sailaja insisted that it should be done.

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