Delhi’s Patiala House Court has granted bail to a Congress member in connection with a fake video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech, noting his cooperation in the probe and that further custodial interrogation is unnecessary.
Arun Reddy, arrested on May 3, manages the ‘Spirit of Congress’ account on ‘X’, officials revealed.
Court’s Observation
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Nabeela Wali observed that the primary allegation against the accused, leading to his arrest, was his role as the ‘Admin’ of the WhatsApp group where the alleged fake video was first circulated. However, there are no accusations of the accused personally distributing the video on any platform, the judge noted.
The accused had been in custody since May 3, with the investigating agency having already taken his police remand.
“Further, the applicant/ accused, as per reply of the investigating officer (IO) has co-operated with the investigating agency and has disclosed the name of his associates/ other investigation. Also, it is an admitted position that no further police custody is required,” the judge said.
High Court of Telangana
The court noted that other suspects in the case have been granted protection from coercive action by the High Court of Telangana.
“In the opinion of this court, further custodial interrogation of the accused is not required. Moreover, it is not the case of the investigating agency that the whereabouts/ details of the other suspects are not known to them. It is also submitted that no further recovery is to be effected from the accused and mobile phone of the accused has already been seized and the accused has clean antecedents. Accordingly, the accused Arun Kumar Bereddy is granted bail,” the judge said.
The judge directed the accused to cooperate with the investigation as required by the IO and to keep his mobile phone operational at all times for communication.
“The accused shall not leave the country without the permission from the Court. The accused shall attend the proceedings either before the IO or before the court,” the judge stated.
Furthermore, the judge directed the accused not to make any inducement, threat, or promise to any person involved in the case to dissuade them from disclosing facts to the court or tamper with evidence.
Earlier, the court had remanded Reddy, 37, to judicial custody after the police stated that he was no longer needed for interrogation.
Arrested by Delhi Police
The Delhi Police had arrested Reddy on Friday. The special cell had registered an FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), filed a complaint about the doctored video of Shah, where his statements regarding a commitment to abolish quota for Muslims in Telangana were altered to make it appear as though he was advocating scrapping all reservations.
