Hyderabad: Two female journalists were arrested by Hyderabad Police’s Cyber Crime division on Wednesday for posting and amplifying allegedly abusive content against Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
Pulse News MD Pogadadanda Revathi, and Thanvi Yadav, a reporter for the channel, along with a third individual, user of an X account titled ‘NippuKodi’, were taken into custody following a complaint by the chief of Congress’ state social media unit.
The trio face serious charges such as publishing obscene material to organised crime and criminal conspiracy, spreading rumours to incite hatred, and provoking a breach of peace.
The ‘offensive’ video shows a Pulse News reporter interviewing a person, who allegedly makes ‘derogatory’ and ‘abusive’ comments about CM Reddy.
The complaint claimed this constituted a ‘highly provocative’ post, and has the potential to incite violence, and is a ‘deliberate attempt by Pulse TV to defame and spread propaganda’.
Opposition party BRS have slammed the arrests, with KT Rama Rao accusing Congress of being ‘intolerant of criticism’ and allowing an ‘extreme level of intolerance’.
“It feels like a state of Emergency has returned in Telangana,” said KTR, son of former chief minister KCR.
KTR claimed Revathi was arrested illegally, with police raiding her home at 5 am.
He called Yadav’s arrest ‘atrocious’ and criticised lack of press freedom in Telangana.
“The arrest of journalists who posted a video of a farmer talking about the hardships he faces under the Congress government is the culmination of this government’s restrictive rule. Is this the constitutional rule that Rahul Gandhi is talking about?” KTR said on X.
Ironically, Revathi was arrested when the BRS was in power.
