YS Sharmila's car was towed after she joined her party's protest rally
Shocking scenes played out on an arterial road of Hyderabad today when a crane brought in by the city police towed away the car of YS Sharmila, Telangana politician and sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, while she still sat inside.
There was more drama at the police station where Ms Sharmila was taken as she refused to come out of the car and a locksmith had to be brought in to open the door of the SUV.
Ms Sharmila's mother, YS Vijayalakshmi, has been put under house arrest as she tried to leave her house in Hyderabad to go meet her daughter.
Ms Sharmila, chief of the YSR Telangana party, was briefly detained yesterday following a clash between her supporters and workers of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Warangal.
This morning, she got into the driver's seat of one of the cars damaged in yesterday's clash and tried to go to Pragati Bhavan, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's official residence.
Visuals showed her sitting in the car as the crane dragged it and her supporters and mediapersons ran alongside. The visuals also show the cracked windshield of the vehicle, damaged in yesterday's clash.
A note from her party said Ms Sharmila set out for the Chief Minister's residence "as a mark of protest and condemnation against the bloody attacks by the TRS goons against her and the party activists during the Padayatra yesterday in Warangal district".
As Ms Sharmila moved along with a caravan that was heavily damaged in yesterday's clash, Hyderabad police stopped her and towed away her vehicle all the way to the SR Nagar police station.
Yesterday's clash took place at Narsampet in Warangal, one of the stops of the padyatra launched by Ms Sharmila's YSR Telangana Party. In the course of march, which has covered 3,500 km so far, Ms Sharmila has repeatedly targeted the KCR-led government, accusing it of massive corruption.
On Sunday, while speaking at Narsampet, she criticised local TRS MLA Peddi Sudarshan Reddy. Her comments reportedly angered cadres from the KCR-led party, and they attacked the YSR Telangana Party's vehicles, sparking a retaliation by its supporters.
"Why are you arresting me? I am the victim, not the accused here," Ms Sharmila was heard shouting yesterday when she and supporters were being taken away by the police.
Following the clash, state police "temporarily cancelled" permission for the padyatra and sent Ms Sharmila to Hyderabad with a police escort. A senior officer denied the party's charge that she was arrested.
"For the past 223 days, me and my party leaders and representatives are holding a peaceful padyatra to highlight the plight of various sections of people in Telangana. "Our rising popularity has jolted Chief Minister KCR and his partymen, who want to stop me at any cost," Ms Sharmila said yesterday.
Today's police action against the Telangana politician comes on the heels of the row over the state police refusing permission for a padyatra by state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Police said that it had refused to allow the march as it passes through a communally sensitive area.
Mr Sanjay then moved the Telangana High Court, which allowed the padyatra with the rider that it cannot enter the specific area of Bhainsa flagged by state police.