New Delhi: Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy's lawyer on Wednesday appeared before the Delhi police and asserted that the Congress leader had nothing to do with creating or posting the doctored video of Union home minister Amit Shah's speech. Meanwhile, at a rally in Telangana, Mr Reddy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Shah of adopting a vengeful attitude against him for questioning the BJP over its stand on reservations.
The Delhi police had issued summons against Mr Reddy and four members of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, namely Shiva Kumar Ambala, Asma Tasleem, Satish Manne and Naveen Pettem, under Sections 91 and 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for allegedly posting the deepfake video of Mr Shah on X.
Mr Reddy's lawyer, in reply to the Delhi police, said his "client does not operate the X handle @INCTelangana" and "as such is unable to provide the information sought by you". He also said that the Delhi police notice "appears to be misdirected" and requested that they withdraw it immediately.
"Your attribution that 'video tweeted or retweeted by you on your X handle' is preconceived and incorrect. It is categorically stated that my client has nothing to do with the creation, uploading, tweeting or retweeting of the alleged video," reads the lawyer's reply.
The lawyer further said that Mr Reddy's X handle is @revanth_anumula and "no tweet or retweet of the alleged video" has been made from his handle.
"Further, the official handle of the chief minister of Telangana on X is @TelanganaCMO. It is stated that, in view of the above facts, your notice appears to be misdirected and based on incorrect information. You are thus requested to withdraw the captioned notice immediately," it said.
Meanwhile, according to sources, the Delhi police is close to identifying the creator of the deepfake video. However, before reaching out to the suspect, they have to verify with others who uploaded or forwarded it.
"The police are still awaiting the response from those who were summoned on Wednesday. A dozen more people are expected to appear in the coming days. Some people from Uttar Pradesh are expected to be questioned on Thursday," another police source said.
The Delhi police has not received any reply from the social media platform X regarding reports on those IDs that shared the doctored video of Mr Shah.
Notices have also been served to five more people from different Opposition parties for allegedly sharing the video. The Delhi police has also summoned Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur on May 2 in connection with the probe.
"I received the notice from the Delhi police on Tuesday. But, it is beyond my understanding why the notice was served to me. This is nothing but anarchy," Mr Thakur said.
Addressing an election rally in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency of Hyderabad, Mr Reddy said a case has been registered against him in Delhi based on the complaint of the Union home ministry.
"I questioned the BJP. When I did that, Mr Modi and Mr Shah resorted to a vengeful attitude and registered a case against me in Delhi," he said.
Reacting to the case registered against him, the Telangana CM said, "You (Mr Modi) come to my state and threaten the CM, but people of Telangana are not too innocent... They won't be scared... Khabardar (be mindful) PM Ji! You may think that you can threaten me by coming to Telangana. This is my place. This is my territory. You threaten me on my soil?"
The special cell of the Delhi police had on Sunday registered an FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Union home ministry, filed a complaint about the doctored video of Mr Shah, in which his statements indicating a commitment to abolish quotas for Muslims on religious grounds in Telangana were changed to make it seem that he was advocating the scrapping of all reservations.
