Telangana HC hears case against WB resident whose X post ‘defamed’ Congress MP Venugopal

Hyderabad: On Monday, the Telangana High Court heard the case against an X user with the handle @befittingfacts who had posted a video allegedly defaming Lok Sabha MP and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal.

The court asked the public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao to get instructions in the criminal petition filed against Shashank Singh, who operates the social media account in question.

The issue started when Shashank uploaded a video of Venugopal claiming that it showed the Congress leader consuming alcohol in a restaurant in Kerala, which was serving liquor without a license. He tagged the Kerala Police asking them to initiate action against KC Venugopal.

The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that sections 505(2) and 504 of IPC registered against the petitioner do not constitute any offence, do not disclose the commission of any offence, do not create enmity or hatred among people or make out a case against the petitioner and the entire case is civil and sought a stay on all further proceedings in the case.

On the other hand, public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao informed the court that the action by the accused in posting the video with the false claim damaged the reputation of KC Venugopal who is a renowned politician and has a good image in the public domain.

Responding to the contention of the PP, Justice K Sujana said that this is not the court to file defamation cases as it is not a private complaint.

Further, the PP sought a direction for issuance of notice to the accused as the case is at the stage of investigation and informed the court that the petitioner approached the court at a premature stage because facts have to be unearthed in this case during the investigation.

Justice K Sujana informed that the accused is a resident of West Bengal, the offence occurred in Kerala and the FIR has been registered in Cyber Crimes PS, Hyderabad and directed the PP to get instructions in this case by June 27 for further hearing.

Justice K Sujana was adjudicating a petition filed by Shashank Singh, a resident of Kolkata, West Bengal, who operates the social media accounts @befittingfacts on X, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in PS Cyber Crimes police station for the alleged offence of uploading a video of Venugopal which allegedly showed him consuming alcohol in a restaurant.

The media allegedly showed Venugopal with a glass of liquor, whereas, the glass which Venugopal was holding contained black tea, not liquor.