The chief of the YSR Telangana Party was on Sunday taken into preventive custody by the state police in connection with her alleged derogatory remarks about a Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA, PTI reported.

YS Sharmila allegedly made the remarks about Mahabubabad MLA Banoth Shankar Naik on Saturday during her ongoing state-wide march.

The Telangana Police filed a case against the YSRTP chief under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in connection with the remarks. The complainant, a local BRS leader, accused her of insulting the Mahabubabad MLA, who belongs to a Scheduled Tribe.

Sharmila will be shifted to Hyderabad for her own safety, an unidentified senior police official told PTI.

Earlier on Sunday, members of the BRS held a sit-in protest in the Mahabubabad district seeking action against the YSRTP chief, ANI reported.

Some protestors shouted slogans of “Go Back Sharmila” and burned hoardings of her party.