Telangana politician allegedly attempts suicide after police raid at home
Hyderabad, Nov 27 : Congress candidate for Gajwel assembly constituency, Vanteru Pratap Reddy allegedly made a futile self-immolation bid after a search was conducted at his house in Kompally here following a complaint that cash meant for distribution to voters was hidden there, police said Tuesday.
A flying squad comprising election officials reached Reddy's house late Monday night along with police, but he and his supporters prevented themfrom discharging their duty leading to some tense moments.
During the search, Reddy immediately doused himself with petrol and tried to set himself on fire, but the police thwarted the bid, they said.
"Reddy along with his supporters misbehaved with the officials on duty and also with police," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Balanagar Zone) P V Padmaja told PTI adding nothing was found during the search.
The official said a case of attempted suicide, obstructing public servant in the discharge ofduty and other charges under relevant IPC sections were registered against Reddy and his supporters.
On Sunday evening, Reddy had held a sit-in protest at the office of the Election Returning Officer in Gajwel, the constituency represented by caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, even as police evicted him.
He had alleged that his phones were being tapped and that his supporters were being harassed. Telangana assembly elections are scheduled to be held on December 7.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
