The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed six more chargesheets separately against 6 accused in connection with a case related to making derogatory posts on social media against judges and judiciary including some of the court verdicts delivered by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
The accused were arrested by CBI on October 22, 2021, from different places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. All the six accused, Sridhar Reddy Avuthu, Jalagam Venkata Satyanarayana, Guda Sridhar Reddy, Sreenath Suswaram, Kishore Kumar Darisa, and Sudduluri Ajay Amruth are currently in judicial custody.
CBI had registered a case on November 11, 2020, against 16 accused and took over the investigation of 12 FIRs from CID, State of Andhra Pradesh in pursuance of the orders of the High Court.
The original FIRs were registered on the complaints from the Registrar General of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. It was alleged that the key personnel occupying posts of prominence in the State of Andhra Pradesh by intentionally targeting the judiciary, made derogatory posts on social media platforms against judges and judiciary.
During the investigation, according to officials, a total of 13 digital gadgets including mobiles, tablets have been recovered. CBI collected call detail records of as many as 53 mobile connections. Around 12 accused and 14 others were examined in the case. During the examination, officials say, evidence from the digital platform has also been collected using Digital Forensic Technique.
Investigation against one more accused is in progress towards gathering evidence against him. His Youtube channel has also been blocked. Moreover, warrants of arrest have been taken by CBI in the names of two of the accused who are abroad from the competent courts in India, and the process for arresting them has been initiated through diplomatic channels,” said CBI Spokesperson RC Joshi.
CBI received information about the accused who are abroad by issuing Interpol’s Blue Notice. The CBI also got the objectionable posts removed from the social media platforms, public domains, posts, and accounts from the internet.
CBI moved through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) channel for gathering the information related to the Facebook profiles of the accused, Twitter accounts, Facebook posts, tweets, YouTube videos from Facebook, Twitter, and Google. During the investigation, CBI had earlier arrested five accused and also filed five separate chargesheets against them.
The earlier charge-sheeted accused are – Dhani Reddy Konda Reddy, Pamula Sudheer, Adarsh Pattapu, Lavanuru Samba Siva Reddy, and Lingareddy Rajasekhar Reddy. With the latest development, 11 separate chargesheets have been filed against all the eleven accused arrested by CBI so far in the case.
