TDP suspends MP after political leader accuses him of sexual assault

(MENAFN-IANS) Amaravati, September 5 (IANS) The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Thursday suspended its MP Koneti Adimoolam after a woman party leader accused him of sexual assault.

Adimoolam is the MP from Satyavedu constituency.

The party suspended him hours after a video surfaced on social media showing him misbehaving with a woman in a hotel who claimed the lawmaker had sent her vulgar messages on the phone at night.

TDP state government leader Palla Srinivasa Rao took the allegations seriously and issued a statement announcing the suspension of the MP.

Earlier, at a press conference in Tirupati, the TDP leader had produced the video as evidence of the MP's alleged misbehaviour with her. She claimed that the video was shot on a pen camera. She said she had also written to TDP leader and chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and TDP general secretary and state minister Nara Lokesh to expel Adimoolam from the party.

The politician said she had earlier resisted giving him a candidature in the recent assembly elections after he defected from the YSR Congress Party to the TDP, but when the party decided to field him, she accepted the decision and campaigned for him.

She alleged that after taking her contact details at party events, Adimoolam started making inappropriate advances to her through messages. She alleged that last month he called her to a hotel room in Tirupati and sexually abused her there. She alleged that the MP threatened to kill her and her family if she disclosed the abuse. She also alleged that he raped her thrice in the same hotel.

The TDP leader said she wanted to expose Adimoolam and when he called her to the hotel, she had a camera with her and recorded the abuse. She also alleged that Adimoolam had raped several women and targeted those who did not bow to his demands.

Adimoolam denied the allegations and claimed that it was a doctored video. He said it was a conspiracy by his rivals within the party to defame him.

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