IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD THE HON'BLE SMT. JUSTICE TIRUMALA DEVI EADA CRIMINAL PETITION No.8577 OF 2025 DATE: 07-01-2026 Between:

Vardhi Reddy Harsh Vardhan Reddy and another … Petitioners And State of Telangana, Rep. by its Public Prosecutor, High Court of TS, Hyderabad and another ... Respondents

ORDER

This Criminal Petition is filed by the petitioners-accused Nos.1 and 2 seeking to quash the proceedings against them in Crime No.1971 of 2024 of Gachibowli Police Station, Cyberabad, registered for the offences under Sections 78(2), 308(5) and 351(4) of BNS and Section 67E of the Information Technology Act.

2. Heard Sri Devadas, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri Jithender Rao Veeramalla, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for respondent No.1-State.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that petitioner No.1-accused No.1 completed B.Tech. and petitioner No.2-accused No.2 is a software engineer and that the petitioners are innocent and have not committed any offence to attract the ingredients of Section 78 (2) of BNS or the other offences as alleged in the complaint. He further submitted that it was only a consensual relationship between petitioner No.1 and respondent No.2-de facto complainant and that the present case is falsely foisted against the petitioners herein by the de facto complainant in collusion with her former boyfriend. He, therefore, prayed to quash the proceedings in the present crime against the petitioners herein.

4. Learned Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that the investigation is in progress and that there are serious allegations against the petitioners herein. He further submitted that petitioner No.1 lured the de facto complainant, had sexual relationship with her and tried to extract money by blackmailing her that he would reveal about the relationship between her and LW.2. He, therefore, prayed to dismiss the Criminal Petition.

5. Perused the record.

6. The contents of complaint reveal that respondent No.2-de facto complainant had a relationship with LW.2-Abhinav since June, 2023, but their marriage was called off due to personal issues. It is alleged that subsequently petitioner No.1-accused No.1 gained access to the de facto complainant, made her believe him and got to know all the secrets about her relationship with LW.2 and had hatched a plan to extract money from the de facto complainant and LW.2. Accused No.1 with his knowledge in Artificial Intelligence bought two United States e-SIMs through online and created fake Gmail ID. Further, he has installed turbo VPN from the Playstore to hide the IP address and using two United States mobile numbers created fake Instagram accounts. Accused No.1 impersonating himself as a blackmailer started messaging LW.2 in a threatening way stating that he knows everything about the relationship between him and the de facto complainant and that he had videos and images of their hotel stay and demanded LW.2 to pay Rs.10 lakhs. Upon getting extorted of his money, LW.2 got panicked and switched off his phone. Then accused No.1 with the help of accused No.2 started harassing LW.1 in the same fashion and demanded Rs.3 lakhs putting her under the fear of death. Thus, the allegations are serious in nature pointing out the offences under Sections 78(2), 308(5) and 351(4) of BNS and Section 67E of the Information Technology Act, against the petitioners herein. The investigation is still in progress. Truth is yet to be unravelled. It is not proper to interfere with the investigation at this stage. Therefore, it is opined that the Criminal Petition lacks merit.

7. Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is dismissed.

Miscellaneous Petitions pending, if any, shall stand closed.

____________________________ JUSTICE TIRUMALA DEVI EADA Date: 07.01.2026.

MD