The Telangana Police on Thursday registered a case against Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Tejasvi Surya for allegedly trespassing on Osmania University campus in Hyderabad on November 24, NDTV reported on Thursday.

Surya, who is also the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, was booked after a complaint was filed by the university’s administration.

The MP had visited the Osmania University to campaign for his party ahead of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections. Accompanied by his supporters, Surya had allegedly removed barricades and barbed wire put up at the gates, and had forcefully entered the campus.

Later, he addressed the students at the Arts College building. Almost inevitably, masks and physical distancing were conspicuous by their absence.

Osmania University Registrar Gopal Reddy told The New Indian Express that the BJP leader did not have the permission to conduct the talk. “Such events are not allowed in the university,” he added. “On directions from [the] vice chancellor, we filed a complaint with the police.”

Telangana Director General of Police Mahender Reddy said that Surya has been booked for criminal trespassing under Section 447 (criminal trespass) of the Indian Penal Code.

Elections are being held for 150 civic constituencies or wards of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. As many as 1,122 candidates are in the fray. The polling will be held on December 1 and results will be announced on December 4.

Surya, who has been campaigning extensively in the city on behalf of the BJP, has made several controversial statements with communal overtones in his speeches, while criticising the state’s ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

On November 23, Surya had accused Owaisi of speaking Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s language of “rabid Islamism, separatism, and extremism”, and claimed that every vote for the Muslim leader was a vote against India and “everything India stands for”. He had further accused Owaisi and his brother of “allowing only Rohingya Muslims, not development”, in Hyderabad.

The BJP leader had also mocked Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for promising to make Hyderabad like Istanbul, saying he actually wants to make “Hyderabad of Pakistan” as he had an alliance with the AIMIM .

On Thursday, the Telangana Police announced that it would monitor the speeches made by political leaders for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, citing inputs about certain “communal elements” who are are trying to create trouble. State police chief Reddy said that legal action will be taken against any politician who is found to be making provocative statements.

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