TELANGANA: On Wednesday, the police detained BJP State President and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay in connection with a case involving the distribution of the SSC Hindi exam question paper via WhatsApp that had been filed at Kamalapur police station in Hanamkonda district on Tuesday. This arrest took place amid heightened tension.
Sanjay was detained by the Kamalapur police on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, cheating in SSC public exams with the intent to spread rumours, interfere with the orderly administration of the current SSC exams, and malign the duly elected State government. Sanjay was named as the first accused in the FIR.
Among the total of 10 accused mentioned in the FIR are B. Prashanth, 33, a former reporter for a Telugu television news station, G. Mahesh, 37, a lab assistant, M. Shiva Ganesh, 19, and a minor boy.
The police on Tuesday registered a case under IPC Sections 120 (B), 420, 447, and 505 (1) (b), as well as Sections 4(a), 6r/w 8, of the T.S. Public Examination (Prevention of Malpractices) Act, 1997, and Section 66-D of the IT Act in response to a complaint made by M. Shiva Prasad, Headmaster of ZPHS (Boys), Kamalapur.
On Tuesday evening, the Kamalapur police detained four suspects, including the young child. According to the police's remand case journal, the first accused was apprehended at Pembarthi arch on the Hanamkonda-Hyderabad section of the NH-163 at 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday based on their confession and data analysis of the phone conversations and Whatsapp talks.
In the wee hours of Wednesday, Sanjay was taken into preventive detention by the Karimnagar Two Town police from his home in Karimnagar in connection with crime number 147/2023 and Section 151 of the Cr.P.C. Sanjay was taken from his home after Tuesday midnight and taken to the Bommalaramaram police station in the Yadadri Bhongir area amid much commotion. Widespread protests by BJP cadres in Gajularamaram and other areas of the State followed his detention.
In a number of locations throughout the districts of Karimnagar, Jagtial, Hanamkonda, Khammam, and Bhadradri Kothagudem, BJP supporters protested over the arrest and dubbed it a "act of political vendetta."
The demonstration that took place outside the Bommalaramaram police station on Wednesday morning resulted in the dispersal of several BJP leaders, including Dubbak Legislator M. Raghunandan Rao.
The police accused the second and third defendants, Prashanth and Mahesh, of transporting the young child to the Kamalapur examination site at the first defendant's request in the remand case diary. The police claimed that at 9.45 am the young boy broke into the testing facility, climbed the compound wall, and took a picture of a Hindi question paper from a student in one of the first floor rooms. The police claim that the picture of the question paper was then sent to WhatsApp groups for the SSC 2019-2020 exam and later spread to other groups.
The second defendant was also accused by the police of forwarding it to Sanjay and the PA of Huzurabad Legislator E Rajender at roughly 11.24 a.m. as "breaking news" posted on various social media platforms.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday night at his home in Hanamkonda, Sanjay was brought before a local court's judge. He was kept in jail by the judge until April.
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