Representative image with the text 'sexual abuse'.
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A TDP MLA from Sathyavedu assembly segment in Chittoor district, 66-year-old Koneti Adimulam has been accused by a female party worker of sexual abuse. The woman had recorded the sexual act with the MLA using a pen camera. The video footage came out on Thursday and was widely shared on social media, causing outrage.
She alleged that after continuous and persistent harassment by the MLA, she had to finally give in to his sexual demands and overtures over the last few months. As the video emerged, TDP suspended the MLA from the party.
Adimulam had previously won the 2019 elections on a YSRCP ticket. After YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy denied him a ticket to contest from Sathyavedu, a SC reserved segment in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Adimulam joined the TDP and secured a ticket from the same segment. He later won the seat too.
The woman stated that unable to bear his constant harassment, she had recorded the sexual act and come out in public.
“When Adhimulam was given a ticket to contest from Sathyavedu, I was one of those TDP leaders who had opposed his joining. However, as a committed party worker, I worked tirelessly for TDP's win to see N Chandrababu Naidu as the chief minister. However, after the elections and winning the segment, Adimulam started harassing me. We both met at a hotel in Tirupati twice, and on both occasions, he sexually abused me. It didn't stop after that. He has been continuously calling on the phone, even at midnight. My husband, suspicious of phone calls from an MLA at midnight, questioned me about the situation. I told him all that happened,” said the 36-year-old woman victim, who is the women's wing president of TDP in the Sathyavedu segment.
The purported videos were said to have been shot in July. The victim, a mother of two girls, claimed that, with her husband's support, she had returned to the hotel, this time armed with a camera concealed in a pen, and recorded the act.
After video footage was out, the TDP woman leader wrote to Naidu on Thursday seeking action against the MLA. Hours after the video was out, TDP state unit president, Gajuwaka MLA, Palla Srinivas Rao, issued orders suspending Adimulam from the party.