Farmers arrested for opposing the acquisition of their land for the proposed regional ring road in the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district were on Tuesday brought to a court in handcuffs sparking outrage across Telangana.

The humiliation meted out to farmers by police who are treat them as petty criminals even as Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao claims that his government was farmer-friendly and raising the slogan “Ab Ki Bar Kisan Sarkar” drew widespread condemnation, particularly from farmers’ organisation and the Opposition Congress after the video clips went viral.

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A large number of small and marginal farmers in the area will lose their entire plots of land to the regional ring road project. Some of them have already given up part of their land three times earlier for other projects and are not ready to part any more land.

On 30 May, farmers from Rayagiri had protested in front of the collectorate demanding that the alignment of the regional ring road should be changed.

The Telangana energy minister G Jagadish Reddy was stopped by the protesting farmers since they wanted to submit a memorandum and the police arrested them under non bailable sections. While two got anticipatory bail, four farmers were sent to judicial remand. They were first kept at Bhongir jail and then shifted to Nalgonda jail.

After completion of a period of judicial remand, the farmers were on Tuesday produced in the Bhongir Sessions court. It was when they were being produced at court the four farmers were handcuffed like petty criminals.

Senior Congress leader and Bhuvanagiri MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy condemned putting handcuffs on farmers and said that it was evidence of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s tyrannical rule. He said some of the farmers were losing their ancestral land entirely because of the project even when government land was being spared.

The agitation was completely peaceful, he claimed. “I strongly condemn this. I am demanding strict action against the police officials responsible for this. The case against them should be withdrawn unconditionally,” added the Congress MP.

In 2017 too, chilli farmers accused of vandalising the offices of chairman and secretary of Khammam Market Yard during a protest were brought to court in handcuffs triggering an outrage against the BRS Government.