Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Thursday hit out at the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi and cited his harrowing experience when he was jailed for 16 days in 2020. Slamming the then BRS government, Reddy said he was kept in the cells that were meant for terrorists and Maoists.
The Chief Minister further added that the cell in which he was lodged was infested with “insects, moths and lizards" for flying a drone, an offence that only called for a Rs 500 fine.
Detailing his ordeal at the Cherlapally jail, Reddy said, “There were big insects and moths and huge lizards to catch the insects. Some 20-30 of them hanging near the tube light on the ceiling. The constable said he had instructions not to put off the light. So, for 16 days ,I did not sleep at night. After everyone woke up and we were let out, I would sleep under a tree."
The Chief Minister further stated that if needed, he can even take the MLAs and ministers to the jail to show them the reality.
Hitting out at the Opposition, Chief Minister Reddy said that he is not someone who would take revenge as people did not give him the mandate for vindictive politics. “Is it not a political vendetta against me? However, I did not commit any act of revenge. Your entire family would have been in Cherlapally jail if I wanted to take revenge. I didn’t do that and showed wisdom," he added.
The Chief Minister’s explosion in the state assembly came following a retort from KT Rama Rao, the state’s former minister and son of BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao.
“What did Revanth Reddy do to go to jail?" Rao questioned, accusing the Chief Minister of flying drones above their houses. He went on to accuse Reddy of not even considering that the children in the house were minors.
“I, to,o went to Warangal jail during the movement. If we send a drone over your Jubilee Hills palace, will you stay quiet? If your wife or your child were there and someone took photos, how would it feel?" he attacked the Chief Minister.
“You linked me to people unnecessarily and labelled me as an adulterer and spoke however you wanted-is that your morality?" he said, reported NDTV.
Notably, Revanth Reddy’s retaliation came days after the Telangana High Court cancelled the complaint against him. In addition to this, the police report also did not mention KTR or his farmhouse and pointed out that the area had not been declared a prohibited zone.
