The family of Giddu Gangadhar, a native of Nirmal district in Telangana, who was working in the United Arab Emirates for the past five years, were worried about his return to the state. It was evident that the 43-year-old would be detained by the police the moment he landed in Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. And as expected, the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police took him into custody on Thursday, July 8. Gangadhar, who was working as a construction worker in Sharjah, was detained for making offensive videos against Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Two such videos against the Chief Minister, laced with profanity, went viral, prompting the police to file cases against him, last year. The Cyber Crime police said that they have, however, released him after brief detention.
“We had taken him into custody and released him after issuing a notice,” Cyber Crime police Assistant Commissioner of Police KVM Prasad told TNM. Gangadhar is a resident of Chincholi Malak, Sarangpur mandal. Among the two derogatory videos in question, one of them was against the backdrop of the death of Boda Sunil Naik, a 28-year-old man from Warangal who died by suicide in April. Sunil had killed himself, dejected over being unemployed. The other video was against the Chief Minister's crop regulation policy in May last year, where KCR promised to make agriculture a profitable business and asked farmers to do demand-driven crop cultivation.
Gangadhar, a critic of KCR and admittedly a supporter of the BJP, spoke out against the ruling TRS party. These videos were widely circulated, prompting legal action against him.
Meanwhile, Gangadhar’s family remained worried about his imminent arrest. Swadesh Parkipandla, president of Pravasi Mithra Labour Union, an organisation working for the welfare of migrant workers, said, “The family is extremely worried. They are poor people from marginalised backgrounds. Our appeal for the government is to drop these cases, after seeking an apology from Gangadhar.”
Swadesh also pointed out that these migrant workers indulge in making such videos because of psychological problems. “They are away from their family and undergo severe stress. They work under harsh conditions which affect their state of mind. Under all these circumstances, they tend to make such videos, without realising the consequences. The right action would be to provide counselling to them. This is our humble appeal to the government.”
In a similar case, Panyala Raju, working in Saudi Arabia was arrested in August last year upon his arrival to India. Raju was a native of Jagityal district. Raju was arrested for spreading fake news that the CM KCR had died of COVID-19.