Hyderabad: A city court granted bail to two journalists who were arrested for airing “defamatory content” against a Telangana minister and a woman IAS officer.
Donthu Ramesh and Dasari Sudheer of Telugu television news channel NTV were arrested Wednesday following a report alleging that the woman IAS officer had an affair with Telangana minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.
Five days after the programme went on air, the Telangana government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the watch of Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C.Sajjanar. This was done after an official complaint was lodged 10 January by IAS Officers’ Association secretary Jayesh Ranjan.
The duo was released from police custody Thursday morning upon furnishing two sureties of Rs 20,000 each, their advocate told the media, adding that Ramesh and Sudheer were directed to hand over their passports to the police as per the court order.
The case was lodged 10 January under Sections 75, 78, 79, 351(1), 352, 61(2) and 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, and Sections 3 and 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, according to a release made available by the police commissioner on his social media handle.
The episode has caused a furore in the media circles and civil society at large over the police action on the scribes despite the news channel airing an apology to the officer and minister concerned. The Congress government has already faced criticism in the last two years for jailing journalists who question the government and its policies.
The Telangana Working Journalists Association and the Telangana State Video Journalists Association (TVJA) accused the Congress government of a witch hunt and condemned the late-night arrests and the manner in which the journalists were “treated like criminals”.
TWJA state president A. Sriramulu alleged that the police were acting in the same manner as they did during the era of former chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Ramesh, Sudheer, and their colleague Paripurna Chari were arrested Tuesday late evening and taken in for questioning over the remarks made on the show ‘Off the Record’ on 7 January.
While Chari was let off after questioning, Ramesh was arrested at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport while departing for Thailand with his family. Sudheer was arrested around midnight on Tuesday with the police allegedly barging into his residence, with family members accusing them of roughing him up.
But, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner defended his team’s action, stating that Ramesh was fleeing to Thailand after receiving a police summons on Tuesday.
“Don’t criticise the government or the police. Allow us to investigate and I request the media to introspect and not fall prey to fake news,” Sajjanar said at a brief press conference Wednesday.
A detailed report would be submitted after taking into consideration all the evidence from the hard disks and the evidence seized from the journalists’ residences and the NTV channel office in Hyderabad, he said.
On the political front, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) condemned the ‘urgency’ of the arrest and drew parallels to the 1975 Emergency, claiming that the Congress dispensation by Revanth Reddy was following former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s lead.
Condemning the police action as ‘unwarranted’, BRS working president KT Rama Rao highlighted that none of the sections were bailable.
“So, why did the Telangana Police decide to terrorise the journalists and their families with these midnight arrests? I request the Telangana DGP to follow the due legal process and not play into the dirty politics of the Congress party and its lousy leadership,” he said.
BJP leader and Union Minister Bandi Sanjay, too, questioned the need for such hasty action. “Those who leaked the incorrect information (from within the system) should be investigated. I urge the police to act as per the law and not treat the journalists like terrorists.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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