Hyderabad: In a surprising development, Hyderabad Cyber Crime DCP V Aravind Babu was relieved of his current duties and directed to report to the state police headquarters on Friday evening. The move comes after Cyber Crime police booked two cases against Meta India Head and multiple Facebook and Instagram handles for allegedly posting morphed and objectionable content targeting PM Narendra Modi during Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led NEET paper leak agitation.Top police sources confirmed that senior officials of Chief Minister’s Office and also the top police brass were miffed with Cyber Crime police booking two cases against social media accounts circulating videos of CJP protest on the complaints of BJP supporters when the Congress party leadership at both national and state levels was in support of student protests.After collecting information about the circumstances leading to the registration of the two cases, the govt through police top brass, relieved Aravind Babu of his duties at Hyderabad commissionerate and directed him to report to state police headquarters on Friday evening.On Wednesday night, T Saikiran Goud (32), a social media core committee member of Telangana BJP, lodged a complaint against 20 Facebook and Instagram accounts and sought action against Meta for hosting the content.“On behalf of Telangana BJP karyakarthas, we seek an investigation into certain Instagram accounts that have been publishing and circulating content which, in our opinion, is derogatory towards Prime Minister and appear to promote narratives that may be prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and public order of the nation,” Goud said, while requesting police to identify the individuals operating the accounts and initiate legal action against them.In a separate complaint, BJP supporter S Aravind Reddy of Nampally alleged some Instagram handles circulated “obscene” videos and images.“I came across multiple morphed and digitally manipulated videos and images depicting the Prime Minister, US President and former Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan in an obscene, derogatory and misleading manner. Such content has the potential to mislead the public,” Reddy complained.Acting on both the complaints, Cyber Crime police booked two separate cases under relevant sections of the IT Act and the BNS against the account holders and Meta’s India Head.
