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YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) General Secretary (Media), Pudi Srihari, has been arrested once again for an allegedly abusive social media post targeting Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Police from Kuppam town arrested him in Bengaluru on Wednesday, April 29. He was brought to Kuppam, where the Additional Junior Civil Judge Court granted bail to him on April 30.
The arrest came a day after the Supreme Court declined to intervene in Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order, suspending the remand rejection order of the trial court.
Srihari, who served as Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) to then Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, had approached the Supreme Court, apprehending arrest after the High Court suspended the remand rejection order given by the trial court in Kuppam.
Srihari was earlier arrested on April 15 in Vijayawada in the case registered against him over making objectionable social media posts with morphed images of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
An FIR was registered by the police on April 13 following a complaint by a person identified as Vinod Kumar Murthy. According to the complainant, the social media post contained “abusive language, dehumanising comparisons, and violent imagery intended to incite hatred, provoke public unrest, and disturb law and order.”
The post in question featured an edited image of Naidu wielding a sword with blood splattered on his clothes. It read: “The man who kills, and the man who blames, both are Babu.”
The poster insinuated that Chandrababu was behind the mysterious deaths of his rivals like Mallela Babji, Vangaveeti Ranga, Pingali Dasharath Ram, and YS Raja Reddy. It also included the hashtag #HitlerChandrababu.
Srihari was subsequently shifted to Kuppam on April 15 and was produced before the trial court on April 16. He was released after the court rejected the petition by the police to send him to judicial remand.
Later, the High Court suspended the order of the trial court. The matter was scheduled for further hearing in the High Court on Wednesday, April 29. However, apprehending his arrest, Srihari approached the Supreme Court which declined to intervene in the High Court order.
Arguing the case on behalf of Srihari, senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy had stated that the police created false evidence against him. He also submitted to the Supreme Court that the High Court did not consider discrepancies pointed out by them during the hearing.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the state government, argued that there is no need for any interim order as the High Court is scheduled to hear the case.
Srihari had denied creating, posting or forwarding the content in question. He said he had worked as a senior journalist for over 25 years and had always functioned within the limits of the law.
He maintained that even as a political leader, he continued to follow the ethics of journalism and respected the law.