Clash between police and students at Mahabubabad protest.
Hyderabad: The Mahabubabad Town Inspector, who was seen grabbing students’ throats during a protest, was removed from duty, Mahabubabad Superintendent of Police P Shabarish said on Thursday, August 20.
A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)-level officer has been appointed to conduct a detailed inquiry into this incident, and appropriate action will be taken based on the report, he said.
Polytechnic students had held a protest outside the District Collectorate on August 19 against the state government’s move to merge polytechnic colleges with ITIs and Apprentice Training Centres under the newly formed Shakti department.
During the protest, Inspector Raghupathi Reddy was seen grabbing two students by their throats while pushing them back.
The protests stem from GO 97, issued on July 3, which renamed the Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Department as SHAKTI, short for Skill, Human Capital and Knowledge Training Initiatives, and brought polytechnic colleges under the ambit of the Young India Skill University.
Students say the merger threatens their access to ECET, the lateral-entry scheme that allows diploma holders to join undergraduate engineering programmes directly. Several protesters said the move would effectively force them to repeat Intermediate education if they wanted to pursue a BTech degree, undermining three years of diploma study.
This post was last modified on August 20, 2026 4:26 pm