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CID names two Telugu TV channels in FIR; HC rejects MP’s bail plea
Raju was arrested by the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) from his residence in Hyderabad on Friday evening.
The Andhra Pradesh Police on Saturday named two Telugu television channels as co-accused in the sedition case filed a day ago against Kanumuri Raghurama Krishnam Raju, the rebel parliamentarian of the ruling YSR Congress Party.
Raju was arrested by the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) from his residence in Hyderabad on Friday evening. His lawyers immediately moved a bail petition in the Andhra Pradesh high court, which rejected it on Saturday and asked him to move the lower court first.
On Saturday evening, CID authorities produced Raju before the Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Guntur dealing with CID cases. The court remanded Raju to 14-day judicial custody late in the evening. It, however, said the MP should be sent to the hospital because of his health condition and that he should not be sent to jail, till his health condition improves.
Raju, who represents Narasapuram Lok Sabha constituency in West Godavari district, was booked under Section 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), for alleged comments against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, damaging its reputation and inciting hatred among the people.
The CID has also invoked Section 153 (b) (making comments causing communal disharmony or affecting national integration) and Section 505 (making statements with public mischief) against the MP.
In the FIR, which was disclosed to the media on Saturday, the CID named two Telugu television channels – TV5 and ABN Andhra Jyothy, as co-accused in the case.
The CID said the two media houses had conspired with Raju against the state government. “The two channels, by allowing pre-meditates and organised slots in their bulletins, have clearly shown that there was a meeting of minds of Raju with the heads of these media channels and all of them together conspired against the government,” the CID said in the FIR.
“Raju did not restrict himself to fair criticism of the government, but made every attempt to create hatred, contempt disaffection towards the government with his words and visual postures provoking his followers to take up violence. They are seditious in nature,” the investigating agency said.
The CID has charged Raju and the two channels with hatching a well-orchestrated conspiracy to create disaffection and to being contempt and hatred against the government. “They also instigated disharmony in public by creating a feeling of hatred on the grounds of caste and religion,” the FIR said.
While the CID has arrested Raju, it has not taken any action against the media channels so far. Representatives of the two channels – TV5 and ABN Andhra Jyothy – refused to comment on the FIR.
In his bail petition before the high court, Raju said he had been targeted for filing a case seeking the cancellation of the bail granted to the chief minister, who was involved in 11 cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and also in money laundering cases.
He sought bail pleading that he had undergone heart surgery four months back. However, the high court rejected his plea and asked him to first approach the lower court for bail.
