Two journalists associated with Telugu news channel NTV were arrested by the Telangana Police on Wednesday for broadcasting allegedly false and defamatory content about a woman Indian Administrative Service officer and a state minister in a television programme, The Hindu reported.
Those arrested were NTV input editor Donthu Ramesh and reporter Sudheer.
Ramesh was arrested at the Hyderabad airport when he was about to board a flight to Bangkok, The News Minute reported. Sudheer was arrested at his residence in the city.
Another NTV reporter, Paripurna Chari, had been detained for questioning but was later released, an unidentified officer told The Hindu.
On Thursday, the journalists were produced before a magistrate and granted bail, PTI reported. The court directed them to surrender their passports.
The arrests followed a complaint filed by Jayesh Ranjan, secretary of the Telangana IAS Officers’ Association, who alleged that content telecast by NTV on January 8 contained “completely false, fabricated and baseless” allegations against a serving woman Indian Administrative Service officer, The News Minute reported.
The complainant alleged that the TV programme had made unsubstantiated claims, used sexual innuendo and indirectly identified the officer while attempting to link her postings to an alleged personal relationship with an elected official, The News Minute reported.
While the reports did not identify the persons, state minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on Saturday denied the allegations and said that legal action would be taken against those responsible for the “deliberately misleading” content.
Based on the complaint, a Special Investigation Team headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar was formed.
The police have registered cases against NTV, T News and several other television channels, YouTube channels and social media accounts under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act.
The charges include sexual harassment, insulting a woman’s modesty, criminal intimidation, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and transmission of obscene material in electronic form.
The investigation team also conducted a search at the NTV office, and seized computers and hard disks, The News Minute reported.
The police said that they were investigating two cases, including a separate matter relating to the circulation of an allegedly obscene and humiliating image of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in a WhatsApp group.
The late-night detentions sparked sharp political reactions, with Opposition parties accusing the Congress government in the state of targeting the media.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader KT Rama Rao condemned the arrests, comparing them to actions during the Emergency and questioned why journalists had been detained at night when the offences cited were bailable.
“It is unfortunate how Telangana DGP is hell bent on treating journalists like criminals,” Rao said on social media.
Former minister and BRS leader T Harish Rao urged the police to follow due process and asked whether it was “necessary to go to journalists’ homes in the middle of the night during the festival and make arrests”, The News Minute reported.
YSR Congress Party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the police action was an attack on press freedom and democratic values.
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