Student leaders of JAC arrested for padayatra

VIJAYAWADA, Feb. 7: The United Andhra Joint Action Committee student leaders were arrested late on Saturday night in Nandigama while staging a padayatra from Acharya Nagarjuna University to Hyderabad and were released on bail in Machilipatnam on Sunday.

The police registered a case under CRPC Section 151 against the student leaders in Nandigama and shifted them to the district headqurters.

In all, 53 student leaders from 14 universities from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions began the journey from the Acharya Nagarjuna University on February 4 to submit a representation to the Governor on united Andhra Pradesh.

On Saturday, they reached Nandigama and camped in a driving school at Munagacharla village near Nandigama.

Sensing law and order problem, the police objected to the padayatra and arrested 28 leaders and shifted them to Machilipatnam. They were released on bail in the afternoon.

The united Andhra JAC students convener, Mr Kishore, criticised the police for adopting a biased attitude against the Andhra leaders and arresting them though they were conduct the padayatra peacefully. He called for educational institutions bandh in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on Monday prote-sting against their arrest in Nandigama. He said the JAC leaders would not tolerate discriminatory attitude of the government against the united Andhra leaders.

Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana, MLAs Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Tangirala Prabhakar, Dhulipalla Narendra and others criticised the arrest of the JAC leaders. They met the superintendent of police, D. Ramakrishnaiah and asked for the students’ release.

They staged a dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi statue protesting against the decision of the police.