HYDERABAD: Five members of Telangana Congress social media team were
arrested
by Hyderabad cyber crime police for allegedly sharing a
doctored video
of home minister
Amit Shah
.
The five — Pendyala Vamshi Krishna, Manne Sathish, Pettam Naveen, Asma Tasleem and Koya Geetha — were later granted bail.
Meanwhile, Telangana high court directed Delhi Police Friday not to take any coercive step until further orders against six Congress activists (the sixth being Ambala Shiva Kumar) in the Shah doctored video case.
The order followed a petition moved by Manne Satish and the others challenging notices issued to them by Delhi Police. The judge, however, said police were free to continue investigating.
An FIR was filed against the six based on a complaint from Shinku Sharan Singh, an officer in the ministry of home affairs.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior counsel Vinod Kumar Deshpande informed HC that Hyderabad police had registered a case against the activists on the same set of allegations following a complaint by BJP general secretary G Premender Reddy.
“They were arrested and got regular bail from the trial court. Now, booking a second FIR on the same set of allegations against the same persons is unlawful,” he said.
The judge then posted the case to June.
The Hyderabad cyber crime police said: “The job of the IT cell members is to monitor social media posts related to political parties and upload them on their official and personal Twitter (X) handles”. “On April 23, during a public meeting in Medak, home minister Amit Shah made a speech and they received a morphed video of the speech on Whatsapp. Vamshi Krishna then uploaded the morphed video on @INCTelangana’ X handle and shared it in various WhatsApp groups. The other accused also shared it.”
