Hyderabad: Unidentified persons attacked the office of ‘Q News’, a YouTube channel run by Chintapandu Naveen alias Teenmaar Mallanna, here on Sunday.
The incident occurred at Peerzadiguda under the Medipally police station in Medchal Malkajgiri district.
Unidentified men barged into the office and ransacked furniture and computers before fleeing from the spot.
Teenmaar Mallanna was not present in the office at the time of attack. Since it was Sunday, the office had only a few staffers.
Following the incident, the channel employees and their supporters came out on the road to stage a protest. The attack and the subsequent protest triggered tension in the area.
The police rushed to the spot and gathered details about the attack, and also stopped the protest.
Mallanna alleged that 25 BRS ‘goondas’ attacked his office, claiming that it was a conspiracy to murder him. He also said that he had no trust in the police of protecting him.
Mallanna, who calls himself a journalist, is a vocal critic of the BRS government and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
He had shot into prominence in 2021 when he had contested the elections for the legislative council seat from the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduates’ constituency, as an Independent candidate. He had given a tough fight to BRS candidate Palla Rajeshwar Reddy to finish runner-up.
He had joined the BJP in December 2021, shortly after he was released from jail. He was jailed for 73 days under various charges, including extortion and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act). He was booked in a total of 38 cases. Some of the cases filed against him were for criticising KCR, as the CHief Minister is popularly known, his son K.T. Rama Rao and his daughter Kavitha.
Five months later, Mallanna announced that he was quitting the BJP to launch a political movement called ‘7200 movement’. He claimed that the movement aims to clean politics.
Meanwhile, state BJP President Bandi Sanjay Kumar has condemned the attack on Mallanna’s office, alleging that the ruling party was behind it.
(IANS)
