YSR Congress Party MP from Rajampet – Peddireddy Midhun Reddy was arrested at Chennai airport in the early hours of the day in connection with a case pertaining to the assault of an Air India official last November at Tirupati airport.

Mithun Reddy was involved in a fracas with Air India station manager S. Rajasekhar on non-issue of boarding pass to him and fellow passengers on November 26 at Renigunta Airport in Chitoor District in Andhra Prades.

The manager in the police complaint stated that the MP was scheduled to catch an Air India flight with his relatives to New Delhi but reached the airport several minutes late. When the Air India staff refused to issue boarding passes as boarding had already been closed, the MP summoned the AI station manager and got into an argument.

During the heated argument the MP and his relatives assaulted the AI station manager. The verbal duel led to physical assault, in which Mr. Midhun Reddy, Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, Mr. Madhusudhan Reddy and their party followers were involved.

The AI official sustained serious fracture in the rib cage and spine and was then shifted to a private hospital in Hyderabad for better treatment.

The airline had lodged a complaint along with the AI station manager at the Yerpedu police station and an investigation was started based on CCTV footage which captured the incident.

Mr. Bhaskar Reddy was arrested and let off on bail last month. While cases had been slapped on Midhun Reddy under sections 448 (trespass), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 353 (assaulting a public servant) of Indian Penal Code, he remained at large for more than a month.

The Hyderabad High Court had last week declined anticipatory bail to the MP Midhun Reddy. As the MP had gone abroad, AP Police had approached the Ministry of Home Affairs for initiating a look out notice against him at all international airports in the country, the CI said.

On Sunday, Midhun Reddy, along with YSR Congress party Srikalahasti constituency in-charge Biyyapu Madhusudhan Reddy, a co-accused in the same case, was brought from Chennai Airport to Srikalahasti police station.

After performing the mandatory medical check-up, the duo was produced before a first-class judicial magistrate, who remanded them to judicial custody for fourteen days. The MP was later moved to Nellore sub-jail. Anticipating that they would foment trouble, six YSRCP MLAs were detained as a precaution ahead of the arrest of P V Mithun Reddy.