Conspirator of Secunderabad railway station violence arrested 

Telangana police take custody of Avula Subba Rao of Andhra Pradesh

Alleged as one of the chief conspirators of the June 17 Secunderabad railway station violence, in the backdrop of Centre’s Agnipath scheme, ex-serviceman Avula Subba Rao of Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh, was formally arrested by Telangana police on Friday.

As per earlier reports, he was picked up by Andhra Pradesh police following the violence last week, and several angles in relation to his complicity were questioned.

On Friday, he along with some of his staff members in his chain of coaching centres, following arrests, were also taken for medical tests at Gandhi Hospital. They were later produced before the Railway Judicial Magistrate at Bhoiguda.

As of 8 p.m., they were not remanded in judicial custody.

Mr. Subba Rao who is the director of ‘ASR Sai Defence Academy’ with coaching centres to train Army job aspirants at various locations in the Telugu States, police said, was present on the day of the violence.

Days preceding the attack too, several of his statements and opinions on suspected and identified WhatsApp groups were provocative, and his elaborate modus operandi reportedly to mount pressure on the government for the roll back of Agnipath scheme, was for ‘vested interests’, it was pointed.

Investigators, based on CCTV footage, admission registers and other materials retrieved from the centres, believe that the riot and arson at the station was carried out by his students and associates. And several of them have already been arrested and remanded.