5 Congress-SM officials in the hands of the Hyderabad Police

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad police on Thursday arrested five Congress members in connection with the Congress’s circulation of a doctored video on its X-handle featuring Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Two complaints have been filed against the Telangana Congress – in Hyderabad and Delhi – alleging that the outfit had allegedly altered and circulated a video of Shah’s statement on reservations. After several tweets and retweets, the video was later removed from the Congress X handle.

In their complaint in Hyderabad, the BJP stated that Amit Shah said, “If the Bharatiya Janata Party forms the government, we will cancel the unconstitutionally given Muslim reservations. In Telangana, SC/ST and OBC rights will be granted but reservation for Muslims will be cancelled.”

However, the BJP alleged that TPCC chief Revanth Reddy in his ”

Following the complaints, a Delhi Police team earlier visited Gandhi Bhavan and issued notices to Revanth and five other Congress leaders asking them to join the probe in New Delhi on May 1. However, due to the CM’s involvement in the election campaign, his legal team represented him and requested a four-week extension.

Delhi Police also reportedly arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday for further investigation into the case. However, the five suspects were already held at the Central Crime Station here, sources said.

Interestingly, while two FIRs have been filed against the Congress on the same issue, the sections relied upon by the Hyderabad Police are different from those of the Delhi Police.

While the Delhi Police registered a case under IPC Sections 153, 153-A, 465, 469 and 171G read with Section 66-C of the Information Technology Act, the Hyderabad Cyber ​​Crime Police booked the accused under of IPC sections 469 and 505 (1). C. Notably, 153-A is a cognizable and non-bailable offense.

Delhi Police is likely to issue a second notice to Telangana Congress members. The Telangana Congress members, who were supposed to appear before the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) office, have not done so so far.

“We will again ask them to appear before the IO (investigating officer) as they did not come on Wednesday,” said an officer privy to the probe by agencies.

Earlier, lawyer Soumya Guptha, who represented Revanth Reddy before IFSO officials in New Delhi, said the video was not posted from the TPCC chief’s personal account. She clarified that the CM did not own the Telangana Congress X handle.