Telangana Police on Sunday arrested Rajya Sabha MP D Srinivas’ son D Sanjay on charges of sexually harassing students of a nursing college he owns and runs.
Sanjay, a former mayor of Nizamabad, was taken into custody after he surrendered before the local police in connection with the case registered on August 3.
He was formally arrested after the police grilled him for more than three hours. A local court remanded him in two-week judicial custody.
Besides the Nirbhaya Act, the police booked Sanjay under Sections 354 (demanding sexual favours and making sexual advances), 354A (passing sexually coloured remarks) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC.
The cases were registered on August 3, a day after 11 woman students from the college submitted a memorandum to state home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy and Telangana director general of police M Mahender Reddy. Following a suggestion from them, the students lodged a formal complaint with the Nizamabad police.
In their complaint, the girls alleged that Sanjay regularly misbehaved with them and made sexual advances. If they refused to oblige, he allegedly abused them in foul language. The girls also produced some text messages received by them from Sanjay as evidence.
Sanjay denied the charges against him. He claimed that he hardly ever went to the college , let alone interact with the students. “The allegations are politically motivated and aimed at targeting my family,” he said.
Soon after the case was registered, Sanjay went underground, trying for an anticipatory bail. However, he did not succeed.
Sanjay’s father Srinivas, who was the PCC president twice in Andhra Pradesh, defected to the TRS after 2014 elections and was subsequently nominated to Rajya Sabha in 2016.
Recently, Srinivas fell out with the TRS leadership, particularly Nizamabad MP K Kavitha, who lodged a complaint with party president alleging that he was indulging in anti-party activities.
First Published: Aug 12, 2018 23:54 IST
Source: HindustanTimes