BRS accuses Telangana Congress MLA of inappropriate conduct with girl student
The opposition BRS on Wednesday accused Telangana Congress MLA Malreddy Ranga Reddy of inappropriately touching a girl student while travelling on a state-run bus, an allegation the legislator denied.
A video circulating on social media shows Ranga Reddy, 70, the MLA from Ibrahimpatnam, interacting with two girl students on a Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (RTC) bus operating under the Congress government's 'Mahalakshmi' free bus scheme for women.
During the interaction, Ranga Reddy is seen holding one of the girl's hands as they discuss the benefits of the scheme.
The students told the MLA that they had been travelling on state-run buses for about a year and had saved around Rs 45,000 annually because of the free travel scheme.
BRS leader R S Praveen Kumar questioned why the MLA was holding the girl's hand and alleged that he had touched her inappropriately.
"Is it not an offence? Is it not outraging the modesty of a woman?" he told reporters in Hyderabad.
Praveen Kumar demanded that the Telangana State Women's Commission summon Ranga Reddy after obtaining legal opinion on the matter.
In a post on X, he also urged the state police's women safety wing to take cognisance of the matter and register a case under the relevant law if a complaint was made.
Ranga Reddy rejected the allegations, saying he had interacted with the students out of fatherly affection and that the BRS was giving a different interpretation to the incident.
In a video statement, the MLA said he boarded the bus at Bonguluru on the outskirts of Hyderabad after attending a meeting at the district Collector's office on October 6.
He said he interacted with different passengers during the journey and that some girl students had requested that more buses be operated because of heavy passenger rush.
Ranga Reddy said the video was recorded while the bus was taking a turn and was being wrongly interpreted by the BRS on social media.
He said he respected women and had no intention of behaving inappropriately towards anyone.
The competing claims came after the video of the interaction circulated widely on social media.
