raja singh statue

Hyderabad's Old City saw a lot of drama on Wednesday when Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Raja Singh tried to install a 25-foot statue of Rani Avantibai, a freedom fighter, at Jumeraat Bazaar. He was stopped by the police in the area.

A fight between Goshamahal MLA's supporters and over 100 police personnel resulted in the legislator alleging that he was hit on the head with a stone. However, a video proved that Singh was lying as it shows Singh clearly using a stone to hit his head and police personnel trying to stop him.

The video shows that during the commotion, under the gold coloured statue, Raja Singh lifted a rock over his head and inflicted injuries on his head. The police can be seen trying to protect Raja from hurting himself by taking the stone from him. He also alleged that the policemen were carrying lathis but the lathis were not seen in this video.

Raja went on to allege that he was assaulted by four police officers ­- ACP Asif Nagar Narasimha Reddy, ACP Goshamahal M Narender, and Sub-Inspectors Gurumurthy and Ravi Kumar. Raja said that they beat him with lathis and hence the injury on his head.

The police tried to stop the installation because Raja Singh did not have permission to install the statue.

"The incident happened around 1 am when Raja Singh and his followers visited the spot. There is a 6-7 feet tall statue of Rani Avanti for many years now at the Y-junction there, but the MLA wanted to replace it with a statue that was almost 25 feet tall," Shahinayathgunj SHO Chand Basha told The News Minute.

Basha went on to say that the police told Raja that he did not have permission but he and his supporters did not listen to the police and said that the statue would go up. Basha added that the statue could be dangerous because it was made of plaster of Paris and fibre. This could make the statue fall down and even cause injuries.

This is a huge risk due to the upcoming monsoon and the winds at this time of the year could be strong. The statue is supposed to go up at a Y-junction in the area, which is a site for many traffic congestions and could cause a lot of injuries if it fell.

Raja was taken to the Osmania General Hospital in the city for treatment at 3 am on Thursday.

The police have registered a case against Raja Singh under sections 141 (unlawful assembly) and 146 (rioting) of the Indian Penal Code.