No fresh FIRs against Telangana Galam: High Court directs police
The judge gave a blanket order directing the police not to register any fresh cases against the organisers of Telangana Galam until further orders.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 21 Feb 2023 10:12 AM GMT
Hyderabad: The Single Bench of Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy on Tuesday directed the Telangana police not to register any fresh FIRs against the content creators/organiser of the Facebook page “Telangana Galam” until further orders.
Justice Reddy further directed the police not to take any coercive action against the organisers of Telangana Galam until further orders.
Justice Vijaysen Reddy, during the course of the hearing, asked the GP for Home, Roopender, why the police are registering multiple FIRs against the organisers/manager of the Facebook page Telangana Galam when the content is the same.
The police have registered three FIRs against the organisers of the Facebook page at CCS cyber crime, Hyderabad, Market police station, and Ramgopalpet police station. The judge gave a blanket order directing the police not to register any fresh cases against the organisers of Telangana Galam until further orders.
The judge was hearing a plea filed by Mallu Ravi, former MP and vice-president of the Congress Party in Telangana, and four others, including Sunil Kanugolu who is in charge of the creative team which creates memes and other videos and drops them on various social media platforms.
Further, it was claimed that these videos and memes project the BRS government in a bad light, which will lead to the shrinking of the BRS vote bank in the ensuing general elections.
C.V. Mohan Reddy, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner, informed the court that the content creators, who are all professionals, hired by the petitioner, Mallu Ravi, are frequently summoned to the police station despite the fact that there is no offensive content in the videos posted on the Facebook page Telangana Galam.
Moreover, the complainants are also not from the BRS party, but they claim that they are from the BRS party. The judge further refused to stay the investigation in the above cases and directed the state to file a counter affidavit.
The matter was adjourned to 14 March.
