A group of students who went to seek the whereabouts of Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad, were allegedly detained by the Narayanaguda police in Hyderabad for nearly 8 hours on Sunday. The students alleged that police confiscated their mobile phones, thereby giving them no opportunity to communicate with their worried friends and family.

On Sunday, Chandra Shekhar Azad visited Hyderabad to address a meeting at Mehdipatnam after meeting the students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Turkayamjal. However, since the Mehdipatnam meeting did not have police permission, the event was foiled and Azad was taken into detention from his hotel in Masab Tank. He was taken to different police stations. Though other protestors and the media asked various police officers, it wasn't clear where Azad was being taken to.

Seeking his whereabouts, students from University of Hyderabad and others gathered outside the Hyderabad Police Commissioner’s office in Basheerbagh. Irritated with the presence of the students, Abids division Assistant Commissioner of Police, Biksham Reddy allegedly lashed out at the students and asked the police personnel to detain them.

Speaking to TNM, Munna Sannaki a PhD scholar from University of Hyderabad (UoH) and member of Ambedkar Students’ Association said, “At around 11 pm, we went to the Commissioner’s office to seek Aazad’s whereabouts. We didn’t know which police station he was taken to. Worried about it, I went and asked the ACP ‘where is Azad?’"

Munna who was detained by the police, added, “Agitated by this, he started yelling at me. He asked me ‘Who is Azad?’ ‘Why are you asking me?’ When I tried reasoning saying that we gathered only to know about Azad's whereabouts and would leave the premises once the police give us clarity. The ACP then behaved rudely with me and asked what links I had with Azad.”

He also alleged that the ACP took his Aadhaar card to verify his identity and then took the contact numbers of his parents. “At 12.30 pm, the ACP called my mother, saying that I was blocking the road and creating law and order problems.”

The visibly agitated ACP then called his subordinates and asked them to detain the ten people gathered there, including four students, , Munna said.

Gopi Swamy, UoH, Students’ Union General Secretary, who also was detained, said, “The police quickly bundled up us along with others in a vehicle and confiscated our phones. However, we managed to sneak through a phone and made a call to our lawyer.”

Despite the intervention by the lawyer, the students were made to sit in the police station until 7.30 am.

On Monday, Azad was also supposed to address the students at UoH. However, police forcibly escorted him to the Hyderabad airport on Monday morning and sent him back to Delhi. Through the night, he was driven from one point to the other, in the city. Responding to his detention and the subsequent police action, Aazad slammed Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s regime as “dictatorial” and promised to return to the city soon.