Hyderabad: Five ‘Save KBR’ activists, including AAP leader Vijay Mallangi, were released on Wednesday, May 13, after allegedly being detained for nearly 12 hours by the Banjara Hills police for protesting against the tree felling at the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park (KBR).
They were also booked under Sections 26 (wrongful restraint), 324 (loss/damage to property), 351 (criminal intimidation), and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
According to Save KBR’s X page, volunteers had gathered around 2 am on the night of May 13 to peacefully demonstrate against overnight tree cutting.
While leaving the site, police allegedly detained one of the protestors. When others went to the police station to ask for an explanation, they too were detained.
“Yesterday night, we got information that tree felling was happening near the main gate and the check post junction, so as concerned citizens, we went there and stood there holding our hands together. That is all we did, we did not talk to anyone cutting the trees, nor did we ask for an explanation.” Mallangi said in a video statement.
Later, when everyone had left the site and one protester, Durga Prasad, was preparing to leave, he was held and brought to the Banjara Hills police station, Mallangi said.
“Upon learning this, I immediately came here at 3 am, and since then, I have been requesting the officers to give us an explanation on what basis they had detained us. I kept asking them if we were free to go, but the officers told us that the concerned officer would come at six, seven, then at eight o’clock, but he only showed up at 10 am.”
Mallangi alleged that when fellow concerned volunteers came to the police station, they too were detained. “These three people were not even present at the site yesterday, yet just to make volunteers feel scared, they booked a case against us,” he alleged.
Calling the police treatment “criminal intimidation”, Mallangi said it was ironic that it was the protestors who were charged under this section.
“We will take this matter to the court, we are very sure we have not made any mistake and only practised our constitutional rights,” he said.
Tree felling at KBR
KBR Park, often referred to as Hyderabad’s last green lung, is facing the threat of large-scale tree cutting, reportedly due to ongoing construction activity and proposed infrastructure works under the H-CITI project.
Protesters allege that the removal of trees began around April 18 at locations including Agrasen Junction, the median stretch between the Cancer Hospital and the KBR boundary wall, and the stretch between Omega Hospital and the KBR Main Gate.
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