Telangana forms SIT to probe defamatory content against CM, IAS officer
Hyderabad, Jan 12 : Telangana Police have formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe two cases booked for alleged defamatory and obscene content targeting Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, a minister and a woman IAS officer.
The eight-member SIT will be headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar.
Director General of Police B. Shivadhar Reddy has constituted the SIT to investigate the case booked against one Kavali Venkatesh for posting a morphed photograph of the Chief Minister, and another case registered against some television channels and social media handles for publishing fake news about a minister and an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.
While the case relating to the Chief Minister was registered in Narayanpet district, the other case was booked at the Central Crime Station (CCS) in Hyderabad.
The SIT members include North Range Joint Commissioner of Police Shwetha, Chevella DCP Yogesh Gautam, Hyderabad Admin DCP Venkata Lakshmi, Cyber Crime DCP Aravind Babu, Vigilance Additional SP Pratap, CCS ACP Guru Raghavendra, Cyber Cell CI Shankar Reddy, and Counter Intelligence Cell SI Harish.
A case was booked against Venkatesh for allegedly morphing the photograph of the Chief Minister and posting it on a WhatsApp group called Telangana Public TV. On a complaint by Congress leader Gulla Narasimha, the police registered a case on Monday.
The CCS registered another case against NTV, T News and several other news channels, as well as YouTube channels and social media handles for allegedly telecasting fake news about a minister and a woman IAS officer.
The case was registered based on a complaint filed by Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan on behalf of the IAS Officers’ Association.
Jayesh Ranjan, who is Secretary of the Telangana IAS Officers’ Association, stated in his complaint that on January 8, NTV published and telecast a news item regarding a woman IAS officer that was “completely false, fabricated and baseless”.
The complainant said that unsubstantiated allegations were made against a serving woman IAS officer, insinuating an alleged personal relationship with a political executive and attempting to link her official postings to such baseless claims.
The cheap insinuations made regarding the officer’s postings, where it was falsely claimed that she was given “comfort postings” over a short period, which not only grossly misrepresented established administrative processes but also sought to deliberately undermine the credibility of the civil services and the constitutional framework within which postings and transfers are carried out, the complainant added.
The police registered the case under Sections 75, 78, 79, 351(1) and 352(2) of BNS and launched the investigation.
Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkata Reddy had expressed anguish over the reports that had hinted at his involvement. Stating he had little interest in life after losing his son in a road accident earlier, he said character assassination was deeply painful.