Telangana high court on Tuesday refused to grant stay on the summons issued to election strategist Sunil Kanugolu by the Hyderabad police cybercrime wing in connection with the alleged derogatory social media posts against chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his family members. Kanugolu was hired by the state unit of Congress to work out campaign strategies for the next year’s assembly elections in Telangana.
Dismissing Kanugolu’s petition, filed on December 29, challenging the police summons, the high court directed him to appear before the police on January 8 for questioning. However, the court asked the police not to arrest him after questioning and directed that Kanugolu cooperate with the police during the investigation.
Kanugolu was served notices under Section 41-A of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), asking to appear before the cybercrime police on December 30 for questioning.
The strategist appealed to the high court to grant a stay on the execution of summons. Even as the court was hearing his petition, the cybercrime police issued a fresh notice to Kanugolu, directing him to make himself available for questioning on January 8.
The police said a case was registered on November 24 based on a complaint lodged by a Bharat Rashtra Samithi activist R Samrat, under Sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On December 13, the cybercrime police had raided Kanugolu’s office, Mindshare United Foundation at Madhapur in Hyderabad, and seized computers, laptops and mobile phones.
The police had detained also three people — Menda Sri Pratap, Shashank and Trishank Sharma — working for Kanugolu, on a complaint by a TRS worker stating that they were posting derogatory videos and messages on the social media targeting KCR and his family members, besides other party leaders.
The police, however, let them off after questioning. They declared Kanugolu as the prime suspect in the case, but he was out of the country when the raid took place. After his return to Hyderabad last week, the police issued him notices.
