Andhra police cracks down on social media activists for 'derogatory posts', several arrested

Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam Party-led NDA government in Andhra Pradesh has launched a massive crackdown against social media activists of YSRCP.

It has served 680 notices, registered 147 cases and arrested 49 persons, for allegedly posting derogatory content targeting the TDP leaders and their families.

On Wednesday, police from Maddipadu police station in Andhra Pradesh came to Hyderabad and handed over a notice to filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma. Police registered a case against him for sharing morphed pictures of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's family members on his social media platforms. Police summoned Ram Gopal Varma for questioning on November 19.

A case has also been registered against former minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy.

Police also booked former YSRCP social media wing in charge Sajjala Bhargav Reddy. He was booked following a statement by one of the social media activists, Varra Ravindra Reddy.

Sajjala Bhargav Reddy is the son of YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's top aide and party general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy. Fearing possible arrest, Bhargav Reddy moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail.

The Second Additional Junior Civil Judge Bhargavi ordered a 14-day remand for Ravindra Reddy, while the other two, Gurrampati Venkata Subba Reddy and Gurajala Uday Kumar Reddy, who provided shelter to him, were issued notices under Section 41(A) of CrPC and granted bail.

The police filed a remand report in court in which Ravindra Reddy confessed to posting defamatory content targeting opposition leaders and their families on instructions from Sajjala Bhargav Reddy.

Jagan alleges harassment

Meanwhile, YSRCP supremo Jagan Mohan Reddy asserted that the government could at most issue a "CrPC 41A notice for a social media post it dislikes", but it cannot allegedly "pick people up and beat them."

"Booking 41A notice (CrPC) is the maximum it can do. That’s where it ends. You cannot take people and beat them up — that’s not acceptable," Reddy said at a press conference in Tadepalli.

He accused the government of "taking the law into its own hands", arresting social media activists and "orchestrating harassment" against YSRCP’s social media wing.

"They are being taken everywhere. These are illegal detentions, and this is not right. If you’re not going to play by the rulebook, then you're doing something you’re not supposed to," he added.

The former CM claimed that the NDA government was "silencing voices in the state" and warned that if this became a precedent, "no voice would be heard anywhere".

(With PTI inputs)