Delhi Police arrests Congress' Arun Reddy in Amit Shah 'doctored' video case

Delhi Police's Special Cell on Friday arrested a national coordinator of the Congress' social media team for allegedly uploading and circulating online a doctored video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, an official said.

This is the first arrest made by Delhi Police in the case.

Arun Reddy (37), a native of Telangana's Hyderabad, was arrested from Delhi. He handles the 'Spirit of Congress' account on X, the official said.

Another police officer said Reddy works as the national coordinator with the Congress' social media and digital platform cell at the party headquarters.

"He is suspected to be among the ones who uploaded the doctored video on social media and also shared it with other Congress members. He will be interrogated to ascertain if he was also involved in making the video," the officer said.

Reddy is among the prominent members of the social media team of the Congress, according to officials.

Police said they will produce him before the Patiala House court and seek his custody for further interrogation.

In a post on X, senior Congress leader Manickam Tagore said, "Our Telangana colleague Arun Reddy has been detained by @DelhiPolice for 24hrs with no information or FIR disclosed. We demand the immediate release of Arun. This authoritarian misuse of power by the regime is condemnable. #ReleaseSpiritOfCongress #ReleaseArunReddy." The Special Cell registered the FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), filed a complaint about the doctored video of Shah where his statements indicating a commitment to abolish quota for Muslims on religious grounds in Telangana were changed to make it seem that he was advocating scrapping of all reservations.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad police on Friday said it has arrested five Telangana Congress party social media activists in connection with the video.

The accused were produced before a local court, which granted them bail on furnishing sureties of Rs 10,000 each and the condition that they will appear before the investigating officer (IO) every Monday and Friday till further orders.

According to a statement issued by Hyderabad police, it received a complaint on April 27 from a Telangana BJP leader alleging that the state Congress unit posted on its account on X a morphed or fabricated video of Shah's speech in violation of the IT Act.

Earlier this week, Delhi Police summoned Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and four Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) members -- Shiva Kumar Ambala, Asma Tasleem, Satish Manne and Naveen Pettem -- under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as the video was uploaded and shared from their accounts.

Police said except Revanth Reddy's lawyer, no one has appeared before them as of now. The officials said that they can summon them again.

On Wednesday, Revanth Reddy's lawyer appeared before the IO and asserted that the chief minister had nothing to do with creating or posting the doctored video of Shah's speech.

Police have also issued notices to 17 more people from various political parties in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, asking them to appear before the IO on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Special Cell's Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit is investigating the case.

Officials said another Special Cell team is already camping in Hyderabad in connection with the case.

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