Amit Shah fake video case: Another notice to Telangana Congress leaders; seized gadgets sent to FSL

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Monday said that it has sent another notice to four Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) members to join the probe after they skipped the first summons in connection with Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s fake video case.

In another development, the police sent a laptop and mobile phones, seized from national coordinator of the Congress’ social media team Arun Beereddy, for forensic examinations, officials said.

According to a police officer, the notice has been served for the second time to the four TPCC members – Shiva Kumar Ambala, Asma Tasleem, Satish Manne and Naveen Pettem.

Last week, they had skipped their first notices which were sent to them under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as the video was uploaded and shared from their social media accounts, the officer said.

Officials said except for TPCC president and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s lawyer, no one has appeared before the police as of now.

The police on Friday arrested Beereddy, a native of Telangana’s Hyderabad, who handled the “Spirit of Congress” account on X. He has been sent for judicial custody after three days of interrogation in police custody.

“We have sent his gadgets, mobile phone and a laptop for forensic examinations. It is suspected that he had uploaded the video from his mobile phone,” the officer said.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police on a complaint from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which comes under the home ministry, had registered the FIR on Sunday under IPC sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth), 465 (punishment for forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 171G (false statement in connection with an election).

The complaint was about the doctored video of Shah where his statements indicating a commitment to abolish quota for Muslims on religious grounds in Telangana were changed to make it seem that he was advocating scrapping of all reservations.

The FIR was also registered under Information Technology (IT) Act’s Section 66C which deals with fraudulent or dishonest use of electronic signatures, password or any other unique identification feature of a person. On Saturday, the police added criminal conspiracy charges under Section 120B of the IPC into the FIR.