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Telangana HC refuses to quash police notice issued to Congress strategist Sunil Kanugolu

While considering petition by Kanugolu, the court directed the police not to arrest him when he appears before them.

Published Jan 03, 2023 | 6:35 PM ⚊UpdatedJan 03, 2023 | 6:36 PM

Publicity-shy election strategist Sunil Kanugolu caught on camera with Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar. (Supplied)

In what is being seen as a setback to Congress strategist Sunil Kanugolu, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday, 3 January, refused to quash the notice issued to him by the police to appear before the investigators on 8 January.

The police issued the notice to him in connection with the posting of objectionable content defaming Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s family on social media.

The high court, while dismissing his plea for quashing the notice, directed the police not to arrest him when he appears before them.

When the police issued the notice to Kanugolu, he moved the high court pleading innocence. He said that he had nothing to do with the content posted on social media and that he lives in Delhi as he is a member of the Congress’s National Task Force.

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His counsel argued that the notice by the police may be quashed because Kanugolu was not even the prime accused in the case filed by the cyber crime police.

Kanugolu filed the petition in the high court on Thursday, 29 December, seeking the quashing of the FIR registered on 24 November under Sections 469 and 505(2) of the IPC at Cyber Crime PS and the notice issued under Section 41A of the CrPC.

The case pertained to a video posted on Facebook captioned Telangana Galam, a spoof in which the faces of the chief minister, his daughter MLC K Kavitha, and son KT Rama Rao, were superimposed on to the faces of actors who appeared in a 1957 Telugu film, Mayabazar.

After raiding the premises from where the video was allegedly posted, an FIR was registered. The content not only disparaged the highest dignitaries in the state but also tended to incite a group of people, according to the complaint lodged by one Samrat with the Cyber Crime, Central Crime Station (CCS) in Hyderabad.