Hyderabad: Hyderabad cops on Tuesday evening raided the workplace of Congress’ political strategist Sunil Kanugolu for allegedly making “defamatory posts” towards Chief Minister Ok. Hyderabad’s authorities.
The Congress known as for large-scale protests Wednesday, labelling the raid on its “struggle room” as an “unlawful assault”. Lok Sabha MP and Telangana Congress Chief Revanth Reddy, MP Uttam Kumar Reddy and others stated they’d lay “siege” on KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) head workplace that’s being inaugurated by KCR on Wednesday.
Congress employees stated cops acted Tuesday evening on the chief minister’s orders in a bid to suppress dissent, and to punish them for questioning his governance.
A number of social gathering employees had been positioned below home arrest earlier than the protests may start within the state.
Rajya Sabha member and the social gathering’s Basic Secretary Ok.C. Venugopal tweeted a scene from Tuesday’s raid in Kanugolu’s IT hub workplace, ‘INClusive Minds’, which employs over 150 folks.
He wrote: “The motion of police in seizing the workplace of #SunilKanugolu is a blatant try and suppress dissent. It’s aimed toward defunctioning @INCTelangana struggle room which is in full swing. Come what could, we’ll proceed our campaign towards corruption by Telangana CM & his household.”
The motion of Cyberabad police in seizing the workplace of #SunilKanugolu is a blatant try and suppress dissent.
It’s aimed toward defunctioning @INCTelangana struggle room which is at full swing.Come what could,we’ll proceed our campaign towards corruption by Telangana CM & his household pic.twitter.com/KWQZk6For0
— Ok C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) December 13, 2022
Calling KCR a “South Indian Hitler”, Congress Lok Sabha MP and AICC in-charge of Telangana, Manickam Tagore, moved an adjournment movement within the Home on Wednesday, additionally alleging that Hyderabad’s cyber police had arrested 5 folks.
“The Home ought to give precedence to debate the atrocious angle of Telangana Police who’ve arrested 5 folks getting into vehemently into the Telangana Congress struggle room in Hyderabad yesterday. The arrest was carried out on the idea of a FB submit towards CM Telangana with no search warrant or with none discover below 41A CRPC,” Tagore stated within the movement discover.
“The Home also needs to direct the state authorities to cease such actions of Chandrasekhar Rao, Telangana Authorities who has been behaving fully with autocratic nature in addition to act as (like) South Indian Hitler,” he added.
Tagore additionally claimed that just about 50 computer systems had been seized, vital knowledge was stolen and arrests made with none FIRs.
Tagore tweeted a submit, taking a dig at KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha’s alleged position within the Delhi liquor rip-off, and challenged the cops to arrest him. He stated the social gathering’s “struggle room” was raided after this specific submit.
The submit captions a photograph of KCR and Kavitha subsequent to an array of liquor bottles – “Ab ki baar, liquor ka sarkaar”.
For this FB submit Telangana Congress Struggle room headed by #SunilKanugolu group at Hyderabad was raided and 50 computer systems taken … Knowledge stolen …
5 of our Proffesional companions arrested illegally with out FIR ..
Now I’m posting the identical let @TelanganaCMO arrest me …#HitlerKCR pic.twitter.com/6SonRAHRdZ— Manickam Tagore .B🇮🇳✋மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப (@manickamtagore) December 14, 2022
Hyderabad Cyber Crimes Assistant Commissioner Ok.V.M. Prasad stated there was clear proof of Kanugolu’s workplace making “defamatory posts’ towards the KCR authorities.
“Faux profiles had been created and posts had been put (on social media) towards the Telangana authorities by way of these profiles. These had been defamatory posts, very insulting posts. Now we have clear proof that the operation was carried out from this workplace and therefore we raided it,” Prasad stated.
“Now we have filed 4 to five FIRs on this case, there have been a number of complainants,” he added.
Calling the raids an assault on “democracy”, Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy stated the police had been “terrorising” the workers and that the struggle room had confidential knowledge about social gathering affairs.
He tweeted: “Cyber police terrorising the workers at @INCIndia struggle room clearly signifies how terrified KCR is of #Congress What an irony that @TelanganaCMO, his son & daughter have all been preaching about democracy & freedom of speech in current occasions.”
Cyber police terrorising the workers at @INCIndia struggle room clearly signifies how terrified KCR is of #Congress
What an irony that @TelanganaCMO ,his Son & daughter have all been preaching about democracy & freedom of speech in current occasions.. pic.twitter.com/u0qNhGKkZy
— Revanth Reddy (@revanth_anumula) December 13, 2022
Police sources advised ThePrint that some digital units had been seized within the raids. Prasad stated three workplace bearers had been additionally detained.
Former Congress MP Mallu Ravi, who was current on the time of raids, advised ThePrint: “The cops got here in civil gown… with out exhibiting us any FIR or telling us concerning the complaints, they performed raids. The minimal requirement is that they present us an FIR, (however) they didn’t reply once we requested them. How can they take away cell telephones and computer systems identical to that?”
“The cops sealed the workplace after evicting the workers. None of us are even being allowed to go to that flooring,” a workers member advised ThePrint.
Sunil Kanugolu, a low-profile political strategist, can be working with the Congress in Karnataka forward of subsequent yr’s Meeting polls. The 40-year outdated has given the blueprint for over a dozen elections for nationwide and regional events thus far.
Kanugolu dealt with ballot technique in about 9 elections for the Bharatiya Janata Get together. One in all which was the 2017 Uttar Pradesh ballot marketing campaign. He has additionally labored with the DMK, the Akali Dal, the AIADMK and now the Congress.
As Opposition angst over the raid spills over in Telangana, Chief Minister KCR was in Delhi Wednesday to inaugurate his renamed social gathering BRS’ (Bharat Rashtra Samithi) workplace within the capital. Going nationwide, he has projected the Telangana mannequin of growth for the nation, along with his social gathering colleagues now calling him a “desh ka neta”.
Additionally learn: Younger, reclusive, ‘sensible’ — meet Sunil Kanugolu, the ‘different Prashant Kishor’ of Congress