Two Telangana journalists - Pogadadanda Revathi, the Managing Director of Pulse News, and Thanvi Yadav, a reporter for the same channel - were arrested by Hyderabad Police's Cyber Crime division Wednesday for posting and amplifying allegedly abusive content against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
A third individual - the user of an X account titled 'NippuKodi' - has also been detained.
All three were taken into custody after a complaint from the chief of the Congress' state social media unit, and face serious charges - from publishing obscene material to organised crime and criminal conspiracy, spreading rumours to incite hatred, and provoking a breach of peace.
The complaint is about a video on the X account in which a Pulse News reporter interviews an individual, who allegedly makes "derogatory" and "abusive" remarks about the Chief Minister.
This, it was argued, constituted a "highly provocative" post, one has the potential to incite violence and is a "deliberate attempt by Pulse TV to defame and spread propaganda".
The arrests have, instead, provoked fierce criticism from the opposition BRS , which was in power before the Congress' big surprise win in 2023. Speaking to NDTV, the BRS' KT Rama Rao accused the Congress of being "intolerant of criticism" and allowing an "extreme level of intolerance".
"It feels like a state of Emergency' has returned in Telangana..." he declared.
In a long X post this morning, Mr Rao claimed Ms Revathi had been arrested illegally, which included police raiding her home at 5 am and showed the Congress' "Emergency-style rule".
He also called Ms Yadav's arrest "atrocious" and criticised the lack of press freedom in Telangana.
"The arrest of journalists who posted a video of a farmer talking about the hardships he faces under the Congress government is the culmination of this government's restrictive rule. Is this the constitutional rule that Rahul Gandhi is talking about?" Mr Rao said on X.
Incidentally, Ms Revathi was arrested in a similar manner when the BRS was in power.
Minutes later the BRS leader targeted Mr Gandhi in a separate post and threw in a sarcastic jibe at the Congress leader carrying a red-bound copy of the Constitution while campaigning.
Meanwhile, the BJP's Shehzad Poonawalla slammed the Congress for arresting a senior journalist for the "crime" of "showing the frustration and plight of the farmers of Telangana".
