Hyderabad, Dec 14 (PTI) The Congress in Telangana on Wednesday held protests at various places in the state against the police raid on the office of its election strategist Sunil Kanugolu, even as police named him as prime accused in cases registered over alleged abusive posts against Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the ruling BRS government.
The Congress held protests at several places in the state, including Hyderabad, Warangal, Mahabubabad, Narayankhed and others, it said in a release.
The party claimed that some of its senior leaders were confined to their homes by police in the morning.
The Congress also said that AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana and MP Manickam Tagore raised the issue of raids on the office of the strategist in Lok Sabha.
State Congress senior vice president Mallu Ravi claimed, in a release, that Chief Minister Rao, through police, seized the strategic plans prepared by Kanugolu for the party.
“Congress is like an ocean and the party would survive all these attacks and ultimately assume power in the next Assembly elections,” he said.
Police on Tuesday night raided Congress poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu’s office here over alleged derogatory posts against the Chief Minister and the ruling BRS government, an official said.
On Wednesday, police said three persons working at the office of Kanugolu were taken into custody and later let off after serving them notices in connection with the raid at the office of the strategist.
A police official said police raided Kanugolu’s office at Madhapur here on Tuesday night in connection with five cases registered over alleged derogatory remarks against the Chief Minister and sharing defamatory posts against the state government and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on social media platforms using different IP addresses and through fake profiles.
He said five cases were registered under relevant sections of IPC and that laptops and mobile phones were seized from the office.
The three persons who were taken taken into custody have told police that they were working under Kanugolu and the office was being run under his guidance.
Based on the “confessions” of the trio, Kanugolu has been named as the main accused in the cases and he was absconding, the official said.
They were operating secretly and police traced them through cybercrime tools, he said.
The office, located in a building, was not registered in the name of any political party, he further said.
The posts had abusive content and it cannot be called as criticism, he added. PTI VVK SJR HDA
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