AP minister booked for assaulting Dalit youth

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad police Sunday booked an Andhra Pradesh minister and his aides

for assaulting a Dalit supporter of the Telangana movement.A

case under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act was filed against Labour Minister D. Nagender and his

aides at Tukaramgate police station in Secunderabad, after one of the

victims lodged a complaint. However, no one was arrested.Shravan Kumar, who sustained bleeding injuries, lodged the complaint against the minister.It

all started when some protestors, demanding the minister's resignation

in support of separate Telangana state, threw eggs on his convoy when he

was attending a function. According to eye witnesses, the minister

rushed menacingly towards the protesters and his men thrashed three

youth.Nagender's cabinet colleague Shankar Rao staged a "sit-in"

outside the police station demanding his arrest. The textiles minister

demanded that Nagender be sacked from the ministry.Shankar Rao said he would meet Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi Monday to demand action against Nagender.Both the ministers are from Hyderabad but Nagender is opposed to the demand for separate Telangana state.Telangana

Joint Action Committee convenor M. Kodandaram also demanded Nagender's

arrest for attacking a Dalit youth. He said the minister and his

"goondas (goons)" assaulted the youth for raising slogans of "Jai

Telangana".