Hyderabad cops form special team to track down bloggers inciting communal animosity

HYDERABAD: The city police have formed a special team, which will be led by the chief of cybercrime unit to track down the bloggers who had posted communally sensitive videos that sparked unrest in Old City prior to the arrest of legislator T. Raja Singh.

On Sunday, the special team arrested a blogger, Mohammed Imran Khan (also known as viral caller Imran), for allegedly uploading videos that incited communal animosity and caused disturbances in the Old City. A case was registered against him under various sections of IPC and the Information Technology Act.

The cybercrime team has identified over 50 bloggers through social media threads from the videos of Raja Singh and police lathi-charge that were shared across social media platforms, according to police sources. According to a cybercrime officer, the special team located the bloggers through their thread links on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Noticeswould be served on troublemakers and cases would be filed against them based on technical evidence. However, there is a catch, the street-smart bloggers frequently change the names and locations of their servers. "Most of them are uneducated. In addition to inciting communal enmity, they are involved in settlements, extortion, blackmailing and collecting protection money from shopkeepers. Some bloggers even pose as crime reporters,” a senior police officer stated.

Any social media post that can disturb the peace or foster hostility between two groups is prohibited under Section 144 of the code of criminal procedure.