The Andhra Pradesh police that has initiated a massive haunt over abusive social media posts, that were engineered during the previous YCP regime as an `organized crime’, directly from the headquarters of the party, has issued as many as 680 notices during one week of this month.
Between November 6 and 12,the police registered 147 cases and arrested 49 persons. The crackdown on social media posts comes amidst outrage expressed by Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, who recently criticised the home minister for not doing her job.
Most of them have been booked under BNS sections related to promoting enmity between different groups, defamation, public mischief, criminal conspiracy as well as IT Act sections related to morphing images and posting derogatory content.
Most of them are YCP activists and sympathisers, allegedly targeted influential women like home minister V Anitha, wives and daughters of Chief MInister Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, TDP MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna, APCC chief YS Sharmila and her mother YS Vijayamma.
Prominent YCP social media activists who have been booked include Varra Ravinder Reddy, Inturi Ravi Kiran, Kallam Harikrishna Reddy, Peddireddy Sudha Rani, and Meka Venkat Rami Reddy.
Kurnool Range DIG Koya Praveen said that Ravinder Reddy is Kadapa district YSRCP co-convenor and handles their social media. He has been spreading defamatory content online, and causing unrest among communities. He has morphed images of political leaders, and has been posting content that incites unrest among various communities, he added.
TDP sources say that after they came to power five months ago, the senior leadership had decided not to do vendetta politics and had ignored these social media activists and their derogatory posts. However, as they continued their dirty game of dragging female family members of TDP leaders, including wives and daughters, the government was forced to take it very seriously.
Moreover, it was upset with social media posts degenerating into sexually vulgar comments on people like Home Minister V Anitha left them no choice but to act firmly.