Telangana CM’s lawyer appears before Delhi Police

Hyderabad: Representatives of Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy recently engaged with officials from the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), Special Cell in Delhi concerning a case involving a manipulated video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Revanth Reddy, amid his election campaign, dispatched his legal team to interface with the authorities, who requested an additional four weeks to furnish responses.

The backdrop to this development dates to April 29, when the IFSO team visited Gandhi Bhavan, the State Congress headquarters in Hyderabad, and summoned Revanth Reddy along with five other Congress leaders over allegations of morphing and disseminating a video of Amit Shah’s remarks on reservations. The contentious video purportedly depicted the Union Home Minister advocating the scrapping of reservations for SC, ST, and OBCs.

IFSO subsequently issued notices to Telangana’s CM under section 91/160 of CrPC, linked to the FIR No 177/24 dated 28.04.2024, citing offenses under sections 153/153-A/465/469/171G IPC along with 66-C IT Act, PS-Special Cell, New Delhi. Delhi police sought information and documents from the Chief Minister, particularly pertaining to the video shared on his official Twitter handle.

In response to the summons, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy voiced his concerns during an election rally in Korutula, Jagtial district, questioning the feasibility of halting his campaign to comply with police summons. He accused Amit Shah of injustice and attributed the legal action to vendetta from both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah against his advocacy for reservations.

Revanth Reddy, undeterred by the legal proceedings, asserted his resolve, drawing parallels with past encounters with the law under the administration of the then Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. He vowed to stand firm against alleged intimidation tactics, citing support from the populace of Telangana.