Hyderabad, Jan 14 (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Wednesday alleged that the Congress rule in Telangana reminds of Emergency days.

Condemning the arrest of two journalists of a Telugu television channel, he demanded their immediate release.

He posted on X that the Director General Police (DGP) is hell bent on treating journalists like criminals

“You could have served them notices and called them for an investigation. Going into journalists homes in the dead of the night is definitely a stretch! I demand immediate release of the arrested journalists. None of the sections are nonbailable, so why did the Telangana police decide to terrorise the journalists and their families with these midnight arrests,” he asked.

The former minister requested the DGP to follow the due legal process and “not play into dirty politics of Congress party and its lousy leadership”

“P.S: Who is the actual source of the leak in this episode? Do you think a pro Govt TV channel will telecast a story without active support from Mr. 30% ?,” added the BRS leader.

Earlier, in another post on the same issue KTR tagged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“I hope you are taking note of how the Telangana branch of your ‘Mohabbat ki Dukan’ is trampling upon constitutional rights of citizens. Last night, three journalists were abducted by state police. In once instance, police broke open the doors of a journalist’s home. This was a case with only bailable sections, where the police could have simply issued a BNSS Section 35 notice. Such repression on media and digital media has now become the hallmark of your colleague Revanth Reddy’s rule in Telangana!,” reads the post.

The police police on Wednesday arrested two reporters of Telugu television news channel in a case relating to telecast of an alleged defamatory story about a minister and woman IAS officer.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner C. V. Sajjanar said a reporter who tried to escape to Bangkok was arrested. Another reporter, who had switched off his phone after being summoned by the police, was also taken into custody.

Sajjanar, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case, told media persons that journalists involved in the case should cooperate with the police in the investigation. He made it clear that the accused, wherever they may be, will be arrested.

–IANS

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