SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday, September 15, ordered that no arrest take place in the controversial Erravelli ‘pasupu neelu‘ (purification with turmeric water) ritual case.
It directed the police to issue notice first, as per rules.
Earlier in the day, police arrested seven people associated with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) under the ST/ST Act at Varadarajpur Junction. They have been identified as Appala Praveen, Reddaboina Amarender, Sreepathi Raju, Muchapati Himavanth, Anthani Ailaiah, Arikele Raju and Anthani Mallesh.
They were arrested based on a complaint by the Congress party’s Dalit Wing.
A case was registered under sections 196(1)(a)(b) (promoting enmity), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with section 3(1)(r) (u) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act Amendment Act, 2015, and section 7(1)(b)(c)(d) of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.
On Tuesday, the High Court questioned how accused could be arrested in cases registered under sections that carry a punishment of less than seven years. It reminded the Telangana Police about DK Basu vs State of West Bengal, where the Supreme Court set guidelines for arresting an accused.
Erravali purification controversy
The controversy erupted on September 8 when BRS workers sprinkled turmeric water in the Erravelli area of Siddipet district, following a protest by Congress workers from the Dalit community. Former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s farmhouse is located there.
Speaking in the Telangana Assembly the following day, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy displayed a screenshot of an X post by a purported BRS supporter, ‘Sandhya Rao,’ which stated, “Today, following the orders of KCR, wherever Dalits stepped around the farmhouse, it was purified with turmeric water,” referring to the protest called by Congress.’
This triggered a major political controversy. BRS alleged that Congress was creating fake accounts in their name with its own party workers, making them post fabricated content and then “parading that bogus propaganda in the sacred legislative Assembly.”
BRS spokesperson claimed that Sandhya Rao BRS was a fake account of the Congress IT cell and has been deactivated.
SOURCE : SIASAT
