Andhra Pradesh police on Sunday arrested two sympathisers of opposition TDP for making objectionable comments about a woman legislator belonging to ruling YSR Congress Party.
According to the police, they had allegedly posted objectionable content on Facebook about Vidadala Rajini, who represents Chilakaluripeta Assembly constituency in Guntur district.
S Hari Prasad Reddy and P Praveen, both said to be sympathisers of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were arrested in Nellore district and brought to Chilkalurpeta on Sunday. They will be produced in a court on Monday.
The police registered a case against them on a complaint by M Nagaraju, a leader of YSRCP. The complainant alleged that Hari Prasad Reddy posted objectionable comments along with the photograph of the MLA. He said Praveen also made objectionable remarks in reply to Hari Prasad Reddy's post.
Similar arrests over objectionable comments have been made multiple times in Andhra Pradesh under both TDP and the current YSRCP regime. A couple of days earlier, the Andhra Pradesh police on Thursday arrested a village volunteer in Kurnool district, for posting allegedly objectionable content about Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and his family, on Whatsapp and other platforms. A local YSRCP leader named Lokesh Reddy reportedly lodged a complaint with the police, along with evidence.
A case under section 509 of Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the IT Act-2008 was registered against them at Chilakaluripeta police station.
The arrests were made two days after the state Assembly passed a Bill to increase the severity of punishments in cases of sexual violence against women. Under the Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill 2019, which was recently passed in the Andhra Assembly, in cases of harassment of women through mail, social media, digital mode or any other form, the guilty shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years on first conviction, and imprisonment for a term which may extend to four years on second and subsequent conviction. These provisions would be added under a new Section 354E 'Harassment of Women' in the Indian Penal Code, specifically to address various forms of harassment online.
With IANS inputs