East Godavari: The arrests of farmers who were pleading to let them take back their lands which were given away to the State government as part of the land pooling for the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Kothapalli mandal in the district caused tension here on Sunday. Even as the farmers were pleading with the police for justice, the farmers and the and leaders of several political parties were thrashed and dragged into police vehicles.

The farmers demanded that their lands be returned taking into consideration the 1983 Andhra Pradesh land acquisition bill amendment and not the 2013 Andhra Pradesh land acquisition bill amendment. Long before the victims of the SEZ tried to barge into the fields in the SEZ, 500 policemen were already in place to prevent them from entering. Last week, the victims had decided they would try and sow the seeds in the field belonging to one Chintha Suryanarayana Murthy, it is learnt.

Among the arrested farmers were SEZ victims committee member Bavishetti Narayanaswamy, Penumallu Subbireddy, CPM farmers wing State Vice-president AV Narasimham, CPM district secretary KS Srinivas, CPM leader Kurakula Simhachalam and several YSR Congress party leaders. They were moved to Annavaram, Pithapuram and Kothapalli police stations.

Later, all the 147 arrested persons were released and the police instructed them not to carry out meetings and rallies since section 144 and section 30 were in effect. Meanwhile, the police arrested YSRCP Pithapuram constituency coordinator Pendem Dora Babu and party Kothapalli mandal president Anala Sudershan, who were travelling towards Pithapuram to extend their support to the victims. Speaking on the occasion, Dora Babu condemned the arrests of the farmers.

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