Telangana woman forest officer assaulted during plantation drive, TRS MLA’s brother held

Mangalore Today News Network

Telangana, Jul 01, 2019 : A woman Forest Range Officer (FRO) was viciously assaulted with a stick by Koneru Krishna Rao, the brother of Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s (TRS) Sirpur MLA Koneru Konappa. Hours after the video footage of the incident went viral, Rao was arrested, Yahoo reported.

 

He was recently elected as vice-chairman of Komaram Bheem Asifabad Zilla Parishad.

Officials said that FRO C Anita was attacked when she went to Sarasala village in Sirpur Mandal on Sunday morning to participate in Telangana government’s plantation drive, ‘Haritha Haaram‘. She had identified a reserve forest land and started planting saplings along with 20 forest department personnel when some villagers objected, claiming ownership of the land.

The villagers informed Koneru Krishna Rao, who arrived with his supporters and allegedly started attacking the forest staff. FRO Anita tried to escape by climbing on to a tractor, but Rao followed her and brutally assaulted her with a stick, hitting her several times on the head. Krishna Rao and the villagers also thrashed other forest department staff.

"Without even asking why the forest officials had gone there, the villagers and Krishna Rao launched a brutal assault on our officials. Without even considering that the FRO is a woman, the men armed with stick and rods surrounded her and beat her up. The officials had gone there to plant saplings on forest land, it is government s land, a forest officer said.