APHC010540382024 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH [3460]

AT AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction)

WEDNESDAY ,THE SEVENTH DAY OF MAY TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE NYAPATHY VIJAY CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 8674/2024 Between:

Sirigireddy Arjun Reddy, ...PETITIONER/ACCUSED AND The State Of Andhra Pradesh ...RESPONDENT/COMPLAINANT CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 8314/2024 Between:

Sajjala Bhargav Reddy ...PETITIONER/ACCUSED AND The State Of Andhra Pradesh ...RESPONDENT/COMPLAINANT Counsel for the Petitioner/accused:

1. DAGGUBATI RAMASWAMY REDDY Counsel for the Respondent/complainant:

1. PUBLIC PROSECUTOR The Court made the following:

HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NYAPATHY VIJAY Criminal Petition Nos.8674 and 8314 of 2024

COMMON ORDER:

The present applications are filed under Section 482 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 seeking anticipatory bail.

2. Both the applications arise out of the same complaint. The facts leading to the filing of the complaint are as under:

3. The Petitioners are A.2 and A.3 in Crime No.132 of 2024 on the file of Roddam Police Station, Penukonda Circle, Sri Satya Said District filed for the offences under Sections 61(2), 111 (2) (b), 196 and 79 of BNS and Sections 3(1) (w) and 3(2) (Va) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (for short „the Act‟) and Section 66(e) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

4. As per the complaint, one A.Pavan Kumar, the complainant, was working as State Secretary of Telugu Desam Party in the social media wing of Telugu Desam Party. It is stated that on 02.11.2024, while the complainant was browsing his facebook account, he noticed an account belonging to one N.Balaji Reddy, wherein several posts were made defaming the public representatives, women leaders by morphing their photos and circulating the same in facebook.

5. In the remand report, it is mentioned that during their investigation, L.W.2 produced the screenshots circulated by the accused in the social media i.e. facebook which are derogatory to the personal life of Smt. Vangalapudi Anitha, Home Minister of the State of A.P., who belongs to Scheduled Caste community and noting such derogatory posts, the Investigating Officer had added Sections 3(1) (W) and 3(2) (Va) of the Act. It is further stated that N.Balaji Reddy, voluntarily appeared before the Investigating Officer and on his free volition of mind confessed that he opened facebook account under the name and style “NENU MAVA” and also instagram account under the user name Balaji 07 with password 901090 and used to circulate the photos which were uploaded by the central committee situated at Tadepalli in the facebook in the support of YSRCP political party during the year 2022. It is alleged that he confessed that he is a member in social media centre group which was opened in the name of Jagananna Connects and the Petitioners were acting as the organizers for the said central group and one Vinod is acting as Admin and totally more than 80 members are actively participating in the activities of the said group.

6. Further, it was allegedly confessed that the rival political leaders are constantly criticizing the Government and decided to tarnish their image in the eyes of the public by circulating posts through social media platform. He further confessed that on 19.09.2022 and 19.01.2023 he received a posting through their social media platform pertaining to morphing pictures of Smt. Vangalapudi Anitha which degrades her character and is abusive in nature. Similar postings were made regarding other senior political leaders holding Constitutional posts in the present Government. Further details of the remand report need not be referred for the purpose of this case. As per the detailed remand report, the accused produced the mobile phone which was used by him and the same was sent to A.P FSL to retrieve data to prove the offence technically. While the investigation is still in progress, the present applications a