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For those familiar with Telangana politics, Konatham Dileep is seen as a key figure in the immediate circle of Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao. A former director of Digital Media in Telangana, a government post, Konatham Dileep has worked with former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) championing the Telangana movement and established ‘Mission Telangana’, a web portal dedicated to promoting Telangana statehood. After Telangana attained statehood in 2014, Dileep worked alongside the BRS for nine years, promoting the state government.
Things have now changed. Over the past few months, Dileep, the current social media in-charge of BRS, has been booked in at least 18 cases for social media posts criticising the Congress government which came to power in December 2023. While some of these cases are linked to posts he made from his own social media handles, others are linked to a Twitter run news channel called Telugu Scribe. The first FIR was registered against Dileep in May 2024.
Speaking to TNM, Dileep called the cases a ‘targeted attempt to silence criticism against the Congress and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.’
Since the change in government, Dileep has also been arrested thrice– in June 2024, November 2024 and more recently in June 2025. Dileep had travelled to the United States on May 18 to attend the launch of a memoir dedicated to his father, Konatham Bakka Reddy. He could travel abroad after the Telangana High Court suspended several lookout circulars in his name. On the night of June 11, Dileep was arrested.
But what prompted the arrests? TNM examined a series of FIRs against Dileep to understand the issue.
Allegations of inciting violence between Muslims and Adivasis
Dileep told TNM that he was picked up at 9 pm on June 11 from the airport and taken to Nirmal (Rural) police station in Nirmal district. “They did not allow me to inform my family or my lawyer nor was I served any notice,” he said.
The arrest was based on an FIR registered on January 29, in Khanapur police station of Nirmal district. The complainant Madavi Lingu is the Khanapur president of Tudam Debba Adivasi, a tribal rights group.
In his complaint, Madavi stated that MD Irfanoddin, a business owner, had made an incendiary speech mobilising Muslims to compel Khanapur MLA and Congress leader Vedma Bhojju to install a statue of freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. In response, a video of MLA Vedma was circulated on social media in which he can be seen speaking angrily and telling a group of Muslim men, “If one person makes a mistake, everyone will be affected.”
Based on Madavi’s complaint, an FIR was registered under sections 196(2) (promotion of enmity between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, or language.), 353(2) (Statements conducing to public mischief.), 296(b) (Obscene acts and songs) and 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The FIR had only mentioned Irfanoddin as an accused. However, further police investigation implicated eight other accused – Dileep, being one of them. The remand report accused Dileep and eight others of creating a wedge between Muslims and Adivasis in Khanapur based on the MLA’s video. “Due to the social media posts, unknown Muslims threatened the petitioner (Madavi Lingu),” the remand report stated.
It is unclear why Dileep and eight others were named by the police for publicising a video where the MLA himself can be seen making incendiary remarks.
According to the remand report seen by TNM, Dileep along with three others were arrested while Irfanoddin was served a notice. Several sections of the BNS including 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) 249 (harbouring an offender), 111 (organised crime), 336 (3) (offense of forgery) and section 3 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were also added to the FIR.
“The whole case was bizarre. The SC/ST Act wasn’t mentioned until we approached the district court. Then suddenly out of nowhere the section was added. Even the judge was perplexed,” Dileep alleged.
Complaints by Congress leaders
Dileep’s lawyer Lalitha Reddy told TNM that the police tried to arrest Dileep after four FIRs were registered at Kadem and Nirmal (Town) police stations. TNM accessed two of the FIRs which accuse Dileep of publishing false and malicious information. Both the complainants in these FIRs belong to the Congress party.
In an FIR registered at Kadam police station in Nirmal district on 30 April 2025, the complainant, Renkala Srinivas, a mandal Youth Congress president, accused Dileep of sharing ‘derogatory, false, frivolous and malicious videos about CM Revanth Reddy.’ He references one post published by Telugu Scribe with the caption, ‘HYDRA toh illu poindi, HCU lo adavi poindi’ (Houses are demolished with HYDRAA, Forests are razed in University of Hyderabad).
During a hearing at Telangana High Court, Vivek Reddy, another lawyer representing Dileep, submitted that the FIR was registered under Section 192 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and Section 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the BNS along with Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act.
“These are serious charges and have been used callously. Even the Supreme Court has said that HCU forests have been razed. How does this tweet cause a riot or breach peace? And how is it obscene?” asks Vivek.
In the FIR registered on June 3, 2025, the complainant Almas Khan, general secretary of Telangana State Congress, mentions a post on Facebook and X referencing the Miss World event held in Hyderabad. The post allegedly accused Congress leader Faheem Qureshi and Rajya Sabha Congress MP Anil Kumar of misbehaving with a Miss world contestant named Milla Maggie.
Both these FIRs refer to Dileep as either the CEO of or the man running Telugu Scribe, a YouTube news channel which is considered to be pro-BRS.
The arrest in November
In November 2024, Dileep was arrested by Hyderabad’s Cyber Crime police for allegedly spreading misinformation and objectionable messages criticising the Congress government.
In a complaint registered on September 28, an individual named J Sanjeev Reddy, stated that certain X platform handles had posted videos which “had the potential to create political tensions and also promote disharmony among the public.” The FIR was registered under Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material) of the Information Technology (IT) Act with relevant Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Three posts were mentioned in the complaint. While one has been deleted, the second video published by Telugu Scribe with the caption ‘HYDRAA style demolitions in Adilabad’ shows an elderly man abusing CM Revanth and his mother. The third post by a handle named ‘Abba Sairam’ shows a video from a comedy scene in a Telugu movie while the audio is of a group of women abusing CM Revanth, his mother and his wife.
Dileep and Telugu Scribe
Along with the above mentioned FIRs, Dileep has been accused in many others and in two remand reports of running Telugu Scribe. While Telugu Scribe has been criticised for clearly siding with the BRS and publishing videos criticising and abusing the Congress, Dileep claims that he has nothing to do with the channel.
“BRS has no direct connection with Telugu Scribe and it is run by people who are sympathetic to BRS’ cause. We aren’t a banned political party and as such there is nothing preventing a channel from supporting us,” Dileep said. “They have made this a pattern now. Someone does something and they conveniently add my name to the list,” he said.
The remand report in the Khanapur MLA case refers to Dileep as the CEO of Telugu Scribe and also accuses him of posting provocative videos regarding the auction of 400-acre land interspersed with the University of Hyderabad (UoH). Three of those FIRs mention how activists belonging to CITU, CPI (M) and ABVP were put under preventive detention for joining the UoH protest against the auction.
It states that several of these activists had decided to join UoH protestors based on Dileep’s X (Twitter) activity.
“He is often included alongside other accused even though he has nothing to do with these cases. The plan is to implicate him in these cases and ensure that he is thrown behind bars for at least six months,” Dileep’s lawyer Lalitha stated adding that even though Dileep is only supposed to visit Khanapur or Nirmal police stations just to sign in the police diary, police officials often question him regarding his social media activity.
“I don’t know how many FIRs are there against me. In a remand report in November 2024, police officials mentioned that several FIRs have been registered against me. We are currently in the process of filing a writ petition in the High Court asking police officials to present a list of all the complaints,” Dileep said.
“So far I have made at least eight trips to either Khanapur, Lokeshwaram, Nirmal (town) or other police stations in the former Adilabad district. The reason is obvious – to make me travel each week to the cornermost parts of Telangana in an attempt to harass me,” Dileep said.