Telangana Youth Congress accuses Cyberabad police of raiding its social media ‘war room’

It was Kanugolu who crafted the Congress’s campaign in Karnataka, which won them the Assembly polls.

‘KCR worried after Karnataka Congress win’

The Indian Youth Congress shared two separate CCTV footages claiming them to be of the raid.

While in the first video, two men can be seen entering an office, in the second video five men could be seen walking out with four CPUs and one desktop. The two men who entered the office in the first CCTV footage were among the five men.

“@TelanganaCOPs barged into @IYCTelangana ‘s Social Media war room earlier today without any warrant or court order and seized several Desktops & laptops. Chota Modi KCR, if you are so scared of the Congress party, it’s time to resign. Shame on you!,” the Indian Youth Congress said in a message on social media.

In its message on social media, the Telangana Youth Congress claimed that Telangana CM K Chandrashekar “got worried” after Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar applauded the “commendable job” of Congress Youth wing in the Karnataka elections.

It also alleged that KCR was “misusing the government machinery” such as police and other agencies.

The Telangana Youth Congress added that the intimidating tactics of state government would not deter it from continuing “to expose the truth of your (KCR) corrupt government.”

INClusive Minds raid

On 9 January Congress poll strategist and task force member Sunil Kanugolu was questioned for nearly two hours after the cybercrime wing of the Hyderabad City Police summoned him.

During the questioning, cops had told South First Kanugolu told the police that he had nothing to do with the posting of objectionable content on social media and cooperated well throughout the questioning.

The cops also issued the notice to Mallu Ravi, a former member of Parliament and a prominent leader of Telangana Congress, after he declared himself as the in-charge of the War Room.

Earlier, Congress leaders and Sunil Kanugolu’s team members at INClusive Minds had alleged that Hyderabad police, who seized electronic devices, had deleted several social media pages run by the team as part of their political campaign.

These social media pages, with posts of critical and satirical nature against KCR and other BRS leaders, team members said, were deemed “objectionable” by the police.

In all five people, three from Kanugolu’s team in leadership positions and two from Telangana Congress, were taken into custody, party insiders said, but the Hyderabad police has remained tight-lipped.

The action of Cyberabad police in seizing the office of #SunilKanugolu is a blatant attempt to suppress dissent.

It is aimed at defunctioning @INCTelangana war room which is at full swing.Come what may,we will continue our crusade against corruption by Telangana CM & his family pic.twitter.com/KWQZk6For0

— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) December 13, 2022

‘Conspiracy to destabilise government’

Without any official statement, sources in the police department said the raids were based on five complaints over alleged derogatory posts against the Telangana chief minister on pages run by Sunil Kanugolu’s team.

“We have arrested people on the basis of information that there was a conspiracy to destabilise the Telangana government,” senior police officials told reporters earlier.

For this FB post Telangana Congress War room headed by #SunilKanugolu team at Hyderabad was raided and 50 computers taken … Data stolen …
Five of our Proffesional partners arrested illegally without FIR ..
Now I am posting the same let @TelanganaCMO arrest me …#HitlerKCR pic.twitter.com/6SonRAHRdZ

— Manickam Tagore .B🇮🇳மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப (@manickamtagore) December 14, 2022