Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao arrested after staging sit-in

Hyderabad: Former Telangana MP and senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao was arrested on Saturday after he staged a sit-in protesting against a "false case" against him for allegedly abusing a police officer.

A day after police booked the case against him for abusing a police inspector and deterring him from discharging his official duty, Rao launched a sit-in at the statue of Rajiv Gandhi at Somajiguda area.

Several leaders of the Congress party including leader of opposition in Telangana assembly, K. Jana Reddy joined him in the protest to show their solidarity.

As the protest was leading to a traffic jam, police arrested Rao.

He was physically lifted into a waiting police vehicle and taken to a police station.

Rao, who is a secretary of the All India Congress Committee, alleged that a false case was lodged against him. He said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was imposing restrictions on the movement of opposition leaders.

The senior leader landed himself in a controversy after he allegedly abused a police inspector when the latter tried to prevent him from using the media point in the state assembly premises on Thursday.

Rao got angry when Palaparthy Sudhakar told him that the media point is only for members of the assembly and the council.

"Nee amma (your mother). Who the hell are you to stop me? You are acting like a ruling party agent", the former MP was heard saying to the inspector.

As the video went viral online, the police officer felt insulted and took to Facebook on Friday to express his feelings. He posted that he wants to resign from his job.

Sudhakar said that Rao may have abused him because he belongs to the scheduled caste. He was also unhappy over his senior officers not taking the incident seriously.

Following the inspector's Facebook post, senior officers persuaded him not to resign.