New Delhi: Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy has hit out and warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi against threatening him in his state after the Congress leader was summoned by Delhi Police in Union home minister Amit Shah’s doctored video case. Terming the summons “atrocious”, he asked Modi how long he would continue his governance by instilling fear among people.
In a controversial move, Revanth Reddy has been summoned by the Delhi police, as have four members of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, for allegedly posting the video on social media. His lawyer to the police has denied all charges.
Reddy’s lawyer told the police on Wednesday (May 1), “Your attribution that ‘video tweeted/retweeted by you on your X/ Twitter handle’ is pre-conceived and incorrect. It is categorically stated that my client has nothing to do with the creating, uploading or tweeting/retweeting of the alleged video.”
The lawyer said Reddy’s Twitter 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 Telangana CMO. It is stated that in view of the above facts, your Notice appears to be misdirected and based on incorrect information and you are thus requested to withdraw the captioned Notice immediately,” he added.
“Today, I’m at Korutla, and later a meeting (is) in Kukatpally and so on. They’re asking me that I stop all my meetings and appointments and appear before the Delhi courts,” Reddy said at the rally.
At a rally in Telangana’s Siddipet on April 25, Shah accused the Congress party of corruption and raised questions on the reservation policy of the state. A doctored version of a video made its way on social media and was put out by some handles. A post went, with video of Shah saying, “Will cancel ST, SC reservations if BJP govt is formed again: Amit Shah. #NoMoreBJP.” Shah, by the way, did talk about ending the reservation given to Muslims in the rally.
Reddy’s lawyer appeared before the Delhi Police on Wednesday and said that he had nothing to do with creating or posting the doctored video of Shah’s speech.
Police sources, as per The Hindu, said they are close to identifying the creator of the deepfake video but before reaching out to the suspect they have to verify who uploaded or forwarded it.
Telangana votes on May 13 in the fourth phase.
