Team Clarion
HYDERABAD — The suspended BJP MLA from Gosha Mahal T Raja Singh has been arrested again on Thursday by Hyderabad Police as protests intensified in the city and multiple cases have been filed against him for his derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in a video, reports news agency ANI.
Raja Singh, who was arrested for the second time in three days, was taken to Gandhi hospital for a routine medical check-up.
Hardening his stand rather to win emotional support from his Hindu supporters, Raja Singh said in a video on Twitter just before his arrest that he is not afraid of ‘bullets, hanging, or jail and will keep fighting for the sake of ‘Dharma’. This way he is giving unexplained hitherto meaning of ‘Dharma.’ Is insulting other religions or their prophets or creating communal disharmony by speaking against other faiths is ‘Dharma’?
“Just got the information that now or in the evening I will be arrested by the police. The chief minister has ordered the police to jail me by any means, even by digging out all the old cases. They want me to be banished or be arrested by the PD act. I want to tell him that I am neither scared of bullets, hanging nor jail and I will keep fighting for the sake of Dharma. If somebody insults my God, I cannot accept it. Crores of Hindus will respond in the manner that they understand,” he said.
In the video, Raja Singh also attacked Telangana minister KT Rama Rao and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi for allegedly vitiating the atmosphere of the state. He also targeted comedian Munawar Faruqui and alleged that KTR allowed him “to make jokes about our gods”.
Police Crackdown on Protesters
As protests intensified on Wednesday, Police arrested some 127 people who were, however, released on Thursday morning. The Hyderabad police severely cracked down on hundreds of protesters who demanded action against Raja Singh. Police reportedly resorted to lathicharge after a large crowd of protesters gathered at Shalibanda in Hyderabad in the late hours of Wednesday
The protests took place mainly in the Shalibanda area, where at least a few hundred people gathered. As it swelled, the cops barged into into homes and used force and took the residents out and arrested them. Some Twitterati condemned the police crackdown on Muslim protesters.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter and said that on his representation to DCP South, 90 protesting youth from Shah Ali Banda and Asha Talkies were released, adding that his party leaders and corporators were “working all night to de-escalate the situation”.
Owaisi’s tweet comes amid videos going viral with the claim that cops entered protesters’ houses in late night action and used force.
In another tweet, Owaisi said: “The youth were released from Kanchanbagh PS at 1:30 AM. In one case, police had used disproportionate force & barged into a home & detained 5 youths. This isn’t acceptable. They’ve been released on my representation. I asked our corporators to drop the youths back home”.