Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA of Sathyavedu Assembly Koneti Adimoolam has been accused of alleged sexual assault by a female colleague.
In a press conference held in Tirupati on Thursday, September 5, the TDP member, also a senior party leader accused Adimoolam of sexual assault and harassment at a hotel in Tirupati in July. She alleged that Adimoolam raped her on three different occasions at a hotel in Tirupati in July.
She revealed that she had informed the TDP supremo and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu as well as party general secretary Nara Lokesh about the incidents and urged for Adimoolam’s expulsion.
She had also opposed the party’s decision to grant him a ticket in the recently concluded Assembly elections but saw no results. She eventually complied with the party’s high command and campaigned for Adimoolam.
During the campaign, Adimoolam got her contact details and started making sexual advances. “Last month, he called me to a hotel room in Tirupati, where he sexually assaulted me,” she alleged.
She further said that Adimoolam had threatened to kill her and her family if she exposed him.
“I decided to expose him and so when he called me to the hotel for the third time I recorded the sexual assault with a pen camera as evidence,” she told reporters.
The alleged video shows Adimoolam forcibly lunging on the victim. The woman’s face has been blurred.
The MLA has been accused of being a serial offender by the victim who alleged he has raped or sexually harassed several women on multiple occasions.
“If any woman did not succumb to his sexual desires, he would torture her,” she said.
TDP suspends Adimoolam
Following the allegations, the TDP MLA stands suspended by the party. In a statement, the party state president Palla Srinivasa Rao stated, “The party takes the allegations against Koneti Adimoolam seriously and has decided to suspend him in light of the sexual harassment claims reported in the media.”
Meanwhile, Adimoolam has vehemently refuted the allegations and called it a conspiracy.
Adimoolam, a sitting MLA from the Satyavedu constituency from Tirupati district joined the TDP in January after quitting from YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) who had refused to issue a ticket during the assembly elections. He had claimed that YSRCP unfairly singled out MLAs from lowered caste groups while allocating tickets.
