Telangana BJP President Bandi Sanjay Kumar arrested; his party says BRS wants to disrupt PM Modi’s visit

Sanjay said that it was an attempt by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Government to disrupt the arrangements being made for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Telangana on April 8 to flag off the Vande Bharat Express from Secunderabad to Tirupati, and inaugurate projects worth over Rs 10,000 crore.

Written by Sreenivas Janyala

Hyderabad | Updated: April 5, 2023 11:07 AM IST

3 min read

Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar being detained by the police. (Photo: ANI)

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Telangana BJP President Bandi Sanjay Kumar was arrested in a late-night operation Tuesday by the police on charges of him being associated with the SSC Hindi examination question paper’s alleged leak. The Class 10 Hindi exam began at 9:30 am on Tuesday and by 10 am, photos of the question paper were circulating on WhatsApp groups first in the Warangal district and then across the state.

Warangal Police Commissioner A V Ranganath said the question paper cannot be considered as leaked “if it was out before the start of the exam”. “In this case, the photos of the question paper started doing the rounds on social media half an hour after the exam started,” he said.

The police said they traced the “leak” to an exam centre at Kamalapur in Hanamkonda. “A minor boy climbed a tree and gained access to a classroom on the first floor where the exam was going on. He asked one student to show the question paper and took photos which he sent to his friend who forwarded them to a WhatsApp group. An employee of the Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) forwarded it to a former journalist P Prashanth who forwarded it to a journalists’ group. Prashanth also forwarded photos of the question paper to Bandi Sanjay,” Ranganath said.

Prashanth was arrested on Tuesday night while the KMC employee is absconding. Late in the night, a special team of Karimnagar Police went to Sanjay’s residence and took him into custody amidst the chaos with his supporters trying to prevent the arrest.

Reacting strongly, the BJP said Sanjay’s arrest indicated the fear and chaos in the BRS. “What was the need to make the arrest past midnight? They could not wait till morning? Where would he run away? There is no basis for his arrest which is illegal. The BRS party is scared of BJP and wants to disrupt the PM’s programme later this week,” BJP General Secretary Premender Reddy said.

Sanjay has been very critical of the state government after the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper was allegedly leaked by an employee last month. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the state government to investigate the alleged leak had issued a notice to Sanjay to appear before it on March 24 and record his statement after Sanjay alleged relatives of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao were behind the leak.

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