A massive row broke out in Telangana after two videos featuring Bandi Sai Bhageerath, the son of Bandi Sanjay, the president of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, showed him assaulting another student. Bhageerath was booked on Tuesday under Sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), police said.
The matter came to light on Tuesday following which the university authorities approached the Dundigal police of Cyberabad with a complaint. Bhageerath is a first-year B.Tech student at a private university on the outskirts of the city.
A video shared by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) social media convenor M Krishank shows Bhageerath, the son of Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and another man physically assaulting and hurling abuses at another person, allegedly his batchmate.
The police have said that an FIR has been registered and an investigation is underway. However, the police is yet to ascertain whether the video is new or old. “The incident took place in the university hostel and as holidays are going on, none of the students is available in the hostel… We will question the students and staff once they are back from break,” said P Ramana Reddy, Dundigal police inspector, according to The Indian Express.
Another video shared by the TRS leader also showed Bhageerath assaulting the student. “Looks like BJP state president Bandi Sanjay garu’s son is on an action spree,” Krishan captioned the video.
However, another video shared by the BJP allegedly shows Sri Ram, the student assaulted by Bhageerath, stating that the issue was old and had been sorted.
“I called Bhageerath’s friend’s sister at 4 am and also texted her asking her to love me. When Bhageerath got to know about this, he approached me. I spoke to him indifferently and he assaulted me. Anyway, it is all past now. We arrived at a compromise and there are no issues between us now. We have let it go. We are friends and batchmates,” Sai Ram is heard saying in the video.
Meanwhile, BJP’s state unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar termed the FIR against him as an act of political vendetta and urged Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao not to involve his children to settle political scores.
“Don’t try to bring children and family members if you want to fight me politically. My son will surrender before the police… It is political vendetta if you have booked a case against my son for a minor disagreement between children that happened a long time ago,” he said, alleging that the university was under pressure to register a complaint against his son.
The TRS, however, condemned the BJP leader for misusing his political stature to shield his son. “This 19-year-old boy is seen in two different videos bashing up his fellow students and it is unfortunate that instead of setting an example, the elected representative and the BJP state president supports his son by attacking political rivals. He has not yet condemned the act of violence,” Krishank said.