The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested six more social media activists who have been supporting the ruling YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in connection with a case pertaining to certain derogatory posts they have made on social media against judges and the judiciary.
The arrested are: Avuthu Sridhar Reddy, Jalagam Venkata Satyanarayana, Srinanth, Sridhar, Ajay Amruth and Darshi Kishore Reddy.
Though the CBI claims to have made the arrests as part of its investigation as directed by the state high court for their abusive comments against judiciary and judges over various verdicts against the YSRC government, the timing of the arrests raised many eye brows.
The arrests were made within hours of the arrest of the Telugu Desam Party official spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhi Ram for his alleged abusive comments against Jagan during a press conference a couple of days ago.
The arrested social media activists have also posted serious comments against Pattabhi for abusing the chief minister. The fresh arrests are being viewed as a possible retaliation to the arrest of Pattabhi.
Earlier in August, the CBI arrested three social media activists of the YSRC in connection with the alleged abusive posts made against judiciary in general and certain high court judges in particular.
The three YSRC social media workers – Lingareedy Rajasekhar Reddy, Dhanireddy Konda Reddy and Pamula Sudhir had to languish in jail for a long time before coming out on bail.
The CBI also questioned Gurrampati Devender Reddy, social media in-charge of YSRC and digital director of Andhra Pradesh government but did not arrest him. In September, the CBI filed a charge sheet against the arrested.
The CBI had registered a case on November 11, 2020, against 16 accused and taken over the investigation of 12 FIRs from the state's CID on orders of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. The original FIRs were registered on complaints from the court's registrar general.
In the FIRs, it was alleged that the key personnel occupying posts of prominence in the state of Andhra Pradesh intentionally made derogatory posts on social media platforms against judges and judiciary following some court verdicts delivered by the judges of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
Action was also initiated by the CBI after it had registered its case to get the alleged objectionable posts removed from the social media platforms and other public domains. A lot of such posts and accounts were removed from the Internet after the CBI registered the case.
