Ahead of his possible arrest on Sunday over charges of sexual harassment, former Nizamabad mayor and TRS MP D. Srinivas’s son, Dharmapuri Sanjay, has gone absconding from his house.
11 nursing students from the city-based Shaankary Nursing College had accused him of sexual harassment and filed a complaint with the IV town police in the city.
Speaking to TNM, IV town police Sub-Inspector Y Ashok Reddy confirmed that Sanjay was absconding and said that four police teams had been formed to search for him.
"We are looking for clues and all efforts are being made to trace him," the SI said.
According to media reports, police teams are conducting searches in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Maharashtra even as his phone remains switched off.
On Thursday, several students along with activists from women rights group, Progressive Organisation for Women (POW), met state Home Minister N Narasimha Reddy, who asked Telangana DGP Mahender Reddy to look into the matter.
The girls in their complaint alleged that Sanjay often spoke to them in a sexist manner laced with innuendos and also forcibly took them to his home.
They also alleged that Sanjay recently sexually abused a girl student who met with an accident and was seeking his permission to go home.
A case was initially registered against Sanjay under Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354(A) (Sexual harassment) 342 (Wrongful confinement), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.
Following this, he was also booked under relevant sections of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act).
However, Sanjay denied all the allegations.
"There is no truth in the allegations against me. I didn't go to Samkri College and I don't have any relationship with the college. I don't even know who is studying in the college. I have a wife and children. I'm not in any live-in relationship with anyone. Someone told those students to speak against me and make these allegations," he told reporters in Nizamabad earlier this week.
He further claimed that his family is being targeted as elections are being held this year. He said, "It seems all this is happening to attack us politically, we don't know (who) but someone is targeting our family. These things are happening as elections are coming up, they are doing it with vested political interests.”