Protests broke out in Telangana after the president of the state BJP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, was dragged out of his home by the police late on Tuesday night and taken into custody. CCTV footage showed that he was forced into the police van despite his supporters trying to resist his arrest.
According to his fellow party members, Kumar, a member of parliament from Karimnagar district, was picked up from his home without any prior information or explanation. He was then taken to different police stations across districts raising questions about his safety.
The police, however, released the First Information Report (FIR) which stated that Kumar was initially taken into "preventive detention" and later arrested over allegations of leaking secondary school exam papers, a charge that his party has dismissed as baseless and politically motivated.
The BJP filed a petition before the Telangana High Court seeking an explanation for the arrest. Terming it an "illegal arrest", the ruling party condemned the detention of Kumar and demanded his immediate release.
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Kumar's arrest comes at a time, when the tension between the BJP and the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi, or BRS have peaked ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state on Saturday to inaugurate several development projects and address a public rally.
G. Kishan Reddy, a union minister and a senior BJP leader from Telangana, called it an "undemocratic" act that violated Mr Kumar's fundamental rights.
Taking to Twitter, the BJP IT cell head wrote, "In a midnight operation, Telangana police has arrested BJP state President Bandi Sanjay Kumar on fabricated charges of being involved in a secondary school paper leak. This won't end well for KCR."
