Hyderabad: The Central Crime Station (CCS) of Hyderabad Police arrested NTV Input Editor and senior journalist Donthu Ramesh and reporters Paripoorna Chary and Sudheer late on Tuesday night, January 13, in connection with a controversial news report involving an IAS woman officer and Telangana Minister of Roads and Buildings Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.
Ramesh was picked up from the Hyderabad Airport while boarding a flight for a vacation with his family. According to reports, all three are likely to be produced before the magistrate on Thursday, January 14.
Recently, local channels aired stories about Komatireddy being allegedly involved in an “affair” with a female IAS officer, leading the minister to issue a response.
The arrest follows a complaint filed by Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan on January 8, alleging the report is “completely false, fabricated and baseless.” The Telangana IAS and IPS Officers’ Association also lodged a complaint against several private news channels, including NTV, Telugu Scribe, MR Media Telangana, Prime9 Telangana, PVNews, Signal TV, Volga Times, MirrorTyOfficial and Tnews Telugu.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged under sections 75 (sexual harassment), 78 (stalking), 79 (word, gesture, sound, or act intended to insult the modesty or intrude upon the privacy of a woman), 351(1) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (2) (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace or another offense) of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhitha (BNS).
Soon after, the Telangana Police formed an eight-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Hyderabad City Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar.
Two days ago, the Telangana IAS and IPS Officers’ Association described the broadcast as “character assassination under the guise of journalism,” targeting women IAS officers and the minister and demanded a public apology. “The content violated privacy, promoted a regressive narrative against women in public service, and amounted to character assassination. We demand its immediate withdrawal,” their statement read.
Harish Rao, KTR condemn journalists’ arrests
Meanwhile, the arrests invoked strong condemnation from Opposition leaders Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) and Siddipet MLA Harish Rao.
KTR said the government is treating journalists “like criminals,” and likened the situation to the 1975-1977 Emergency in India.
“You could have served them notices and called them for an investigation. Going into journalists’ homes in the dead of the night is definitely a stretch! I demand the immediate release of the arrested journalists. None of the sections are non-bailable, so why did the Telangana police decide to terrorise the journalists and their families with these midnight arrests? I request Telangana DGP to follow the due legal process and not play into the dirty politics ofthe Congress party and its lousy leadership,” he posted on X.
Harish Rao called the arrest “murder of democracy.”
“Are they hardcore terrorists just because they break into homes and make arrests in the middle of the night? We strongly condemn the series of arrests of journalists. This is an attack on democracy by the Revanth Reddy government,” he shared on his social media page.
The former minister questioned the Revanth Reddy government’s witch-hunt of journalists. “It is a direct assault by the Congress government, clinging to power, on the self-respect of Telangana journalists,” he said.
“Revanth Reddy.. Is this your people’s rule? Is this the restoration of democracy you promised?” his X post read.
