It has been nearly three weeks since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested six more social media activists of the YSR Congress party in connection with a case pertaining to certain derogatory posts they had made on social media against judges and the judiciary.
The arrested were: Avuthu Sridhar Reddy, Jalagam Venkata Satyanarayana, Srinanth, Sridhar, Ajay Amruth and Darshi Kishore Reddy, who were charged with attacking judiciary in general and certain high court judges in particular.
For the last three weeks, they have been languishing in Guntur jail, but surprisingly not a single YSRC worker or leader had called on the arrested social media activists, let alone extending them legal help to come out on bail.
In August, too, the CBI had arrested three YSRC social media workers – Lingareedy Rajasekhar Reddy, Dhanireddy Konda Reddy and Pamula Sudhi. They too had to languish in jail for a long time before coming out on bail.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against the accused in connection with the case. In the normal course, they should have got the bail. But there was none in the party who could help them.
“My son has posted any derogatory messages against judges or judiciary. He only forwarded what he had received on his mobile. Not a single YSRC leader called on him in the jail, leave alone giving them extension,” said father of one the accused.
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.
