Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police on Monday arrested a man for attacking Chilkur Balaji head priest CS Rangarajan in the city outskirts on February 7.

The police arrested the main accused Kovvuri Veer Raghava Reddy (45), a native of East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh, who was also remanded to judicial custody. Police also arrested five accused including two women from Khammam and Nizamabad district and were produced before the Court.

According to police, people clad in black uniform went to the residence of Rangarajan, demanded him to support financially as well as to recruit people in ‘Rama Rajyam Army’ and assaulted him.

After a disagreement with him, Raghava Reddy and the others attacked the priest. They also recorded videos while threatening him. The incident came to light after the Temple Protection Movement convenor Dr MV Soundararajan released a statement on Sunday. He also shared a video of the alleged attackers threatening the priest at his house, adjacent to the temple.

On the complaint of Rangarajan, a case was registered. “All the accused have been identified and on the same day, the founder of Ramarajyam organisation and the main accused Raghava Reddy and all others were arrested,” said police officials.

Police said that Raghava Reddy floated the Rama Rajyamorganisation in 2022 on social media platforms and was running a YouTube channel. He posted a few Bhagavad Gita slokas and motivated the audience to join the Army to protect Hindu Dharma. He also posted in the same site that people who register themselves from 1-09-2024 to 31-12-2024 will be recruited as ‘Rama Rajyam Army’ with a salary of Rs 20,000. In response to the post, 25 members met Raghava on January 24 at Tanuku. After four days of stay, all of them went to Kotappakonda where a contribution of Rs 2,000 was collected from each individual and got the dresses stitched by a local tailor. On February 7, all went to Chilkur in three vehicles and committed the crime.