Vijayawada corporator booked for misbehaving with woman

Hyderabad, May 14 A corporator of Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh has been booked for allegedly misbehaving with a woman on a flight, police said.

U. Venkateshwara Rao of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was booked under section 354 of the Indian Penal code following a complaint lodged by a woman who was his co-passenger on the Pune-Hyderabad flight on Friday.

The complainant, a Non-Resident Indian, filed a FIR in the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport police station. She said Rao, who was sitting next to her in the flight, misbehaved with her.

Police booked the case but before they could act Rao left for Vijayawada by another flight.

A police official then sent a communication to his counterpart at Vijayawada airport. 

Rao was stopped at the airport and questioned about the complaint. He, however, was not arrested in the case.

Women's organisations have condemned the police role in the case. They sought immediate action against Rao, who had gone to Pune on a study tour along with other corporators.

Rao also faced allegations that he misbehaved with women passengers in a train while going to Pune. The corporator, however, denied the allegations.

Referring to the incident that occurred on the flight, he said the language problem led to some misunderstanding.

Rao said while he was asleep his foot might have touched the co-passenger. He said that since he can speak only Telugu, he could not communicate properly with the woman. 

She called the air hostess and asked her to shift Rao to a seat in some other row.

Rao also denied that he misbehaved with women in the train and termed the allegation as a conspiracy by the opposition parties.