After a huge uproar, the Telangana Police on Monday took into custody a BJP leader in Armoor town of Nizamabad district for allegedly assaulting a school principal over the teaching of Urdu.
Mandula Balu, president of BJP’s Armoor town unit, was taken into custody from a guest house in Ankapoor, reportedly belonging to Paidi Rakesh Reddy, the BJP MLA from the Armoor Assembly constituency.
A posse of police personnel physically lifted Balu out of the guest house and whisked him away.
Balu and his supporters tried to resist the police. The BJP leader termed the police action as cruel.
Balu had slapped Amer Khan, the principal of Bharat Chandra School, on June 27. The BJP leader’s action in the presence of a police officer and the inaction by the police had triggered an outrage.
The BJP leader and his supporters were irked over the teaching of Urdu at the private school. During an argument at the school, Balu slapped the principal and abused him.
BJP leaders alleged that the Urdu teacher was also teaching Namaaz and other religious practices to Hindu students.
The school management, headed by Hindus, denied this. They stated that Urdu was introduced as the second language as per a decision taken by the school management following requests from the parents of a section of students.
School correspondent Mallayya said the Urdu teacher took a couple of classes and taught the Urdu alphabet.
According to Amer Khan, the management was planning to have a separate block for the Urdu department. However, the newly appointed Urdu teacher wasn’t aware of this and took a combined class.
Following objections from parents of non-Muslim students, Urdu classes were discontinued, but a local BJP leader, along with his supporters, barged into the school and manhandled the principal.
Amer Khan alleged that following the incident, he was held at the police station till evening.
Based on the complaint filed by school correspondent Mallayya, police registered an FIR against BJP leader Balu and others for criminal trespass, causing hurt and mischief.
Tahsildar Satyanarayana of Armoor lodged a counter complaint under section 196 read with 3(5) of BNS (promoting enmity between groups) against the school principal and correspondent.
