Kirlampudi Turns A Police Camp, Kapu Patriarch Mudragada Placed Under House Arrest

Rajahmundry: Kapu agitation leader Mudragada Padmanabham has been placed under house arrest at his native village of Kirlampudi, here on Tuesday. The house arrest is likely to continue for another 24 hours.

All other major Kapu leaders have also been either arrested or have been placed under arrest.

The Kapus have been agitating for BC status to them, a promise that the TDP had made to them during the time of the 2014 elections.

The Kapu leader was scheduled to begin a Kapu Satyagraha Yatra on Wednesday. The yatra was to go on for five days and the house arrest is seen as a preventive measure by the district police to thwart the move. Heavy police bandobust was made at Mudragada's residence and all across East Godavari district. On Tuesday evening, as he boarded his car to leave the house police deployed at his residence sent him back. Te police also prevented his supporters from meeting him.

Strongly resenting the police crackdown, Mudragada said the TDP Government was behaving like Hitler and said the repression would not end the Kapu struggle. He reminded that both Kala Venkat Rao and Atchennaidu came to his house as representatives of the AP Government and assured to complete the survey and take a decision on th eissue. "What has happened to those assurances," he asked.

Mudragada Padmanabham is leading an agitation to force the state government to include Kapus in the BC list.