Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu on Monday wrote a letter to Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Gautam Sawang condemned the police action against party leader and former MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar, The Hindu reported.

The Vishakhapatnam Police on Sunday stopped Prabhakar’s convoy near Chintapalli town. The deputy inspector general of police, Vishakhapatnam (Range), told The Hindu that the police did not know beforehand that the TDP leader was travelling with the convoy. He added that they came to know about it only after questioning people travelling along with him.

Superintendent of Police B Krishna Rao told the newspaper that a case was pending against Prabhakar in the West Godavari district, because of which he was detained for a while and then handed to police officials from West Godavari. The case reportedly pertained to assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of duty.

Naidu, in his letter to the DGP, alleged that a false case was registered against Prabhakar as he protested against rising petrol and diesel prices, and met the tehsildar in the Denduluru town in this regard on August 28.

“Since the police are ignoring law and order and singularly focusing on filing false complaints against TDP leaders, the state is witnessing murders and rapes on a daily basis,” Naidu said, according to The Hindu.

The TDP chief said that the current manner of functioning of the police will be a “black mark” on the institution of the police. He said that in order to prove the autonomy of the police, it was necessary that all the “false cases” filed against TDP leaders on August 28 be withdrawn.

On August 28, TDP leaders held protests in all Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh against rising prices of fuel and essential commodities, The News Minute reported. Naidu had given the call for the state-wide protests.

At Denduluru, Prabhakar rode a bullock cart in protest against “exorbitant” fuel prices.