Hyderabad, February 27: In a volte face, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLAs denied they had attacked Lok Satta Party member Jayaprakash Narayan on the Assembly premises.
The TRS members claimed that they had, in fact, prevented the driver Mallesh when he tried to attack Dr. Jayaprakash.
Submit views
TRS MLAs — T. Harish Rao, K. Vijayarama Rao and K. Sammaiah — made this claim when they were asked to submit their views to Assembly Chief Marshal Arthur who had been asked to inquire into the incident.
The attack on Dr. Jayaprakash took place on February 17 at the media point in the Assembly attracting widespread condemnation and the demand for stringent action against the MLAs involved.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders had justified the attack on the ground that the Lok Satta Party prediden t had no mention of the 400 suicides in Telangana while condemning the disruption of the Governor’s address by MLAs from the region.
Report submitted
The Chief Marshal submitted his report to Legislature Secretary S. Rajasadaram on Saturday incorporating the video-clippings and other material.
The TRS members admitted that they had questioned Dr. Jayaprakash for his alleged comments against Telangana after having won from the region, but had no intentions to attack him.
Criticised
Meanwhile, in the Council, the submission of a report by the Chief Marshal about the attack on Dr. JP without seeking the version of eye witnesses came in for criticism.
Mr. Paladugu Venkata Rao, Congress member who was witness to the attack, said he had learnt from TV channels that the Marshal had submitted the report.
Mr. Venkata Rao said the Chief Marshal neither spoke to him, nor to Dr.Jayaprakash or to media persons present. Mr. Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy (Cong), agreeing with Mr. Rao, said it would certainly be a one-sided report.
He appealed to the Council Chairman A. Chakrapani to conduct an inquiry into how the Chief Marshal submitted the report without even informing him.
-Agencies