Delhi Police on Thursday made its first arrest in a case in connection with a doctored video of Union home minister Amit Shah and apprehended a Congress worker for allegedly being involved in the editing and circulation of the clip in a bid to spread “misinformation and create public disorder”.
According to a senior police officer, the accused Arun Reddy, who runs an X account named ‘Spirit of Congress’ and identifies himself as an AICC national coordinator on the microblogging site, was picked up for interrogation before being arrested.
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“Reddy was picked up from Delhi on Friday for questioning and was later arrested. He was involved in the editing and circulation of the video with an intent to spread misinformation and create public disorder. We are questioning him and will make more arrests,” the senior officer said, seeking anonymity.
Acting on a complaint from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), which comes under the ministry of home affairs, Delhi Police on Sunday lodged an FIR in connection with the doctored video of Shah, where his statement made during a Lok Sabha poll rally indicating a commitment to abolish quota for Muslims on religious grounds in Telangana was edited to make it appear he was advocating scrapping of all reservations.
In a post on X, Congress leader Manickam Tagore said: “Our Telangana colleague, Arun Reddy, has been detained by Delhi Police for 24 hrs with no information or FIR disclosed. We demand the immediate release of Arun. This authoritarian misuse of power by the regime is condemnable.”
On Monday, Delhi Police issued summons to Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy, asking him to appear before it in the national capital on May 1. One person, who is said to be the Assam Congress’s “war room coordinator”, was also arrested by Assam Police in Guwahati for his alleged involvement in the matter.
On May 1, Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur was summoned on May 2 for questioning. Thakur did not appear for the probe. Earlier in the day, Hyderabad Police arrested five Telangana Congress workers, who were subsequently granted bail.
