Telangana police have set up an eight-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into two high-profile cases, one involving a morphed and obscene photograph of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on WhatsApp and another involving defamatory content against a woman IAS officer.
DGP Shivadhar Reddy Tuesday formed the SIT, which will be headed by Hyderabad commissioner of police, VC Sajjanar, for the two cases registered by the Central Crime Station (CCS) and Maddur Police Station, respectively.
The SIT will conduct investigations and file the charge sheets expeditiously.
In the first case, Maddur Congress party’s mandal president complained about the morphing and posting of a photograph of the Chief Minister in an objectionable manner at the local police station in Narayanpet police. An individual, Kavali Venkatesh of Kotakonda village, has allegedly posted it on social media.
In the second case, the complaint was lodged by the president of the IAS Officers’ Association, Jayesh Ranjan, over a news story aired by two Telugu news channels and seven YouTube channels involving a woman IAS officer and a minister in the state Cabinet.
Cases have been registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to sexual harassment, intruding on the privacy of women and criminal intimidation.
However, Opposition BRS has accused the government of trying to intimidate the news channels with the SIT. BRS working president KT Rama Rao even said a television channel considered close to the ruling party had aired the content initially, and the story was planted, accusing the channel of being in collusion with those in the government.
“The Revanth (Reddy) led government formed an SIT against several channels and digital media handles to investigate the news story on a state minister, even though they had just quoted it instead of taking action against the channel that had originally published it,” alleged Rao.
He further questioned, “Why are these new dramas in the name of SIT? This SIT has been formed to protect whom? Who is this SIT going to hunt down?”The news story against the unnamed woman IAS officer has been criticised by both the associations of IAS and IPS officers.