Telangana BJP Chief Loses Phone During Police Detention, Files Complaint

Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Sunday lodged a complaint with the Karimnagar police stating that he had lost his mobile phone during the course of being detained recently in the question paper leak case and requested the authorities to trace it.

Sanjay Kumar, a Lok Sabha MP from Karimnagar constituency, was arrested on April 5 by the Warangal Police over the alleged leak of secondary school examination papers hours after being picked up in the middle of the night and placed initially under preventive arrest.

The BJP leader, who was named as the prime accused in the case relating to the alleged circulation of Class 10 (SSC) Hindi examination question paper in groups of an instant messaging app, was remanded in judicial custody, but was later granted bail by a court on April 6.

In the complaint to the police today, Sanjay Kumar said he was detained during the intervening night of April 4 and April 5 by Karimnagar police and taken in a police van to Bommalaramaram police station near Hyderabad.

He submitted that during the course of travel, he realised that he lost his mobile phone and claimed to have brought this to the notice of police officials, who were travelling in the van.

After he was remanded, Sanjay Kumar had informed to his advocates about the missing mobile phone.

"I remember that I had the mobile (phone) with me when I was in taken in custody," Sanjay Kumar said in the complaint and requested the police to initiate a probe to locate his mobile phone as it has "all my contact numbers and party-related information stored in it".

After the arrest of Sanjay Kumar, Warangal Police Commissioner A V Ranganath had said: "There was a WhatsApp conversation between Sanjay and the second accused (a former journalist of a TV channel). There were also WhatsApp calls between them. When we asked Sanjay, he said his phone is not with him. If we examine his phone, some more information will come out".

After purported images of two question papers surfaced on social media, police accused Sanjay Kumar of conspiring with other accused to create rumours and provoke breach of peace during the ongoing SSC public examination to defame the state government.

The images of the SSC Telugu and Hindi question papers surfaced in social media platforms on April 3 and April 4 while the exams were underway. The exams began across the state on April 3.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)