Hyderabad, Dec 21 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh government Monday agreed to shift fasting Congress MP L. Rajagopal to Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here after he made a dramatic escape from a Vijayawada hospital. Police have launched a massive hunt for him across several cities.
Director General of Police R.R. Girish Kumar suspended five officers for negligence of duty. One assistant commissioner of police, two inspectors and two sub-inspectors were suspended after the Vijayawada police commissioner submitted a report to the police chief.

The Vijayawada MP disappeared Sunday night by giving the slip to 200 policemen deployed around the Government General Hospital. He had been on an indefinite fast for six days against the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh.

State Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy here said the MP had not yet been located. Chief Minister K. Rosaiah held a high-level meeting with officials and later an emergency cabinet meeting.

With the MP remaining untraced even after 12 hours, the state government agreed to his demand for treatment at NIMS in Hyderabad. The government had earlier rejected his demand, anticipating law and order problems.

Police continued to search for the MP in and around Vijayawada and on the roads leading to Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and other towns.

Police said the MP walked out of the hospital with some followers and disappeared while the hospital staff were making arrangements to shift him to a private hospital.

Witnesses said the MP, who was holding a national flag in his hand, came out of the hospital at 10.10 p.m. with his friend and driver and sped away in a Qualis even before policemen deployed there could understand anything.

Four other vehicles of Rajagopal’s supporters were following the Qualis carrying him but they vanished before the police could react.

It was at NIMS that Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao was admitted during his ‘fast unto death’, demanding the formation of a Telangana state.

Police suspect the MP might surface in Hyderabad to continue his fast as he was arrested twice and sent back to Vijayawada Dec 15.

The MP, who launched the indefinite fast the same day in Vijayawada, was forcibly shifted to the hospital early Saturday from the hunger strike camp. He was also booked by the police for attempt to suicide.

The family members of the industrialist-MP blamed the authorities for the incident. They said the MP was upset over being denied better treatment facilities and had even written to Governor N.D. Tiwari that he was not being shifted to NIMS despite orders by the State Human Rights Commission.

Rajagopal was unhappy with the central government for not withdrawing its statement on the proposal to form a separate Telangana state.