Published Sep 15, 2026 | 10:01 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 15, 2026 | 10:01 AM
BRS workers gather in front of Saifabad police station in Hyderabad.
Synopsis: DCP K Shilpavalli said police called Mahesh and Mahender to the station in connection with Crime No. 371/26. While the police were conducting scene reconstruction and recording a confession, some residents came to the station seeking the SHO’s permission for a DJ event. Shilpavalli said the men allegedly turned argumentative when the permission was denied. The group recognised Mahesh from viral videos and confronted the police, asking how people who clashed with and abused the police were being treated respectfully, but locals like them who only wanted permission for the event were talked to dismissively.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) reiterated that masked men barged into a police station and issued threats to two aides of its working president K. T. Rama Rao, even as the police categorically denied such an incident.
The BRS on Monday, 14 September, alleged that a group of unidentified men wearing masks threatened and tried to assault Rama Rao’s Public Relations Officer Mahesh and Assistant Mahendra Reddy at the Saifabad police station in Hyderabad suburbs.
Police summoned the duo for allegedly preventing police personnel from executing their duties during the BRS protest outside the Telangana Assembly on 7 September.
On Monday night, BRS MLS Dasoju Sravan Kumar described the day’s events as “barbaric”. He said the treatment meted out to Mahesh and Mahender Reddy resembled policing “in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh” rather than Telangana.
Sravan said the two aides were picked up on Monday morning over what he called a baseless case alleging they had abused police personnel near the Assembly. He alleged that over nearly 12 hours of interrogation, they were denied water, tea and food, and that their advocates were not allowed to meet them for legal counsel.
He said that during the interrogation that lasted nine to 10 hours, 10 to 15 masked men barged into the interrogation room in the presence of the Station House Officer and Sub-Inspector, and threatened to “eliminate” Mahesh and Mahender. He questioned why police who scrutinise ordinary visitors closely had allowed masked men to walk in unchallenged.
Sravan alleged that when the two later tried to file a complaint over the incident, police refused to register an FIR, despite the evidence in the form of CCTV recording resting with the SHO and DCP.
Calling it a first in his experience, he alleged the refusal came on the instructions of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, and suggested the masked men could be either the Chief Minister’s henchmen or policemen in mufti. He also criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over Revanth Reddy’s conduct as Chief Minister.
Announcing BRS’s next steps, Sravan said the party would approach the national and state human rights commissions, and the High Court to seek accountability from the officers involved.
“We will fight for justice,” he said.
Related: BRS alleges masked police tried to assault KTR aides inside Hyderabad station
Khairtabad DCP K Shilpavalli, meanwhile, refuted the allegations.
Briefing the media late last night, Shilpavalli said Mahesh and Mahender were called to the station in connection with Crime No. 371/26. While the police were conducting scene reconstruction and recording a confession, some residents came to the station seeking the SHO’s permission for a DJ event.
Shilpavalli said the men allegedly turned argumentative when the permission was denied.
She said the group recognised Mahesh from viral videos and confronted the police, asking how people who clashed with and abused the police were being treated respectfully, but locals like them who only wanted permission for the event were talked to dismissively.
The group allegedly pointed at Mahesh and Mahender while escalating the argument before the SI intervened and had them escorted out, the DCP said.
“It is not true that any attack occurred inside the police station. There is no evidence of something like that happening,” Shilpavalli said.
On Tuesday morning, KTR reiterated his allegation and called the attack on his aides an attempt at lynching.
“Lynching doesn’t always start as an act of killing. Sometimes it starts as a carefully planned attack inside a fully functional police station, in front of uniformed officials,” he wrote, alleging that “goondaism” was being sponsored and enabled by state machinery.
Warning that Telangana was on the brink of chaos, KTR said what happened to his aides could happen to any citizen who “does not bow down to oppression”. Tagging Rahul Gandhi, he added, “Well done, Congress.”
