Sharmila again: YSRTP chief arrested after altercation with police

YSRTP chief YS Sharmila was arrested by the Hyderabad police on Monday after she allegedly assaulted the police personnel who were apparently preventing her from leaving her residence in Jubilee Hills.

In videos circulated on social media, Sharmila could be seen shoving away a male officer obstructing her path, while also manhandling woman constables attempting to stop her from proceeding further in the street.

Sharmila, younger sister of Andhra Pradesh CM Jaganmohan Reddy, defended her action as "in self-defence as the police were behaving rudely with her.”

The YSRTP leader said that she was only going to the SIT office to submit a memorandum on the ongoing investigation into the TSPSC recruitment exam papers leak scam, adding that she had not planned for any protest at the office.

“Am I a criminal or a murderer? Don't I have any freedom? Why are so many police deployed around restricting me to my house? How can a male officer obstruct a woman?” questioned Sharmila, who was taken to the Jubilee Hills police station.

Later, Y S Vijayamma, widow of late CM Rajasekhara Reddy, reached the station but was stopped by the cops from meeting her daughter. In the melee, a visibly furious Vijayamma reportedly slapped a woman constable.

Sharmila's altercation with the police and brief sit-in protest on the road came as a reminder of the high drama on the Hyderabad streets in November when cops had to tow away an SUV with her at the wheel insisting on driving towards CM K Chandrasekhar Rao's camp-office.

Sharmila's protest then was over the attack on her convoy allegedly by BRS men at Narsampet and her arrest later by the police a day before.

Sharmila has focused her agitation now on the sensational Telangana state public service commission held exam paper leaks, which resulted in the cancellation of the exams last month.

“Is questioning the government's incompetence a crime?” Vijayamma asked while accusing the KCR administration “of vindictive action, restricting her daughter with house arrests.”

Sharmila launched YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) in July 2021 and ventured into Telangana politics despite the disapproval of her elder brother Jagan. She has been on Praja-Prasthanam padayatra across Telangana, engaged in a blistering attack on the ruling dispensation including KCR, his son and minister KT Rama Rao and local TRS legislators wherever she was addressing the public.