Telangana: SIT Constituted to Probe 2 Cases On Fake News
The investigation would be conducted under the overall supervision of Hyderabad Police Commissioner Sajjanar
Hyderabad: Director-General of Police B. Shivdhar Reddy on Tuesday issued orders constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by city police commissioner V.C. Sajjanar to probe two cases recently registered in Maddur of Narayanpet district and at the Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad.
Meanwhile NTV expressed regret for airing the report in its ‘Off the Record’ feature, which had prompted the IAS Officers Association to file a police complaint against the channel management.
Maintaining that it had never intended to “harm the character of any individual or tarnish anyone’s image,” the NTV Editor said the channel respected all-India services officers and people’s representatives. It regretted the “misunderstanding caused.”
Official sources told this correspondent that Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had a detailed discussion on the controversy with IAS Officers Association president and special chief secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Director General of Police B. Shivadhar Reddy and a few woman bureaucrats who expressed their strong resentment against the TV report and sought justice. A few hours after the meeting, NTV aired its regret.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday said the government had unveiled “a new drama” by setting up a Special Investigation Team, this time to investigate reports about a minister that was aired by a TV channel. “This is one more attempt by the Revanth Reddy government to divert public attention from more pressing issues, as well as his failures to keep promises made to the people by Congress,” Rama Rao said.
The BRS leader, in a statement, said it was strange to see a SIT being set up to investigate a media report, and target those which cited or quoted the original report about a minister. “Instead of taking action on whosoever the government believes was at fault, why spread the net to various other media outlets? This is clearly an attempt to throttle media voices. Who is the SIT for? Who is it trying to protect and who are its targets,” Rama Rao asked.
He said if at all a SIT is required, then it is needed to investigate the excesses of the Congress government. He said the incident involving a staffer of a minster who reportedly pointed a gun at an industrialist and demanded `300 crore, the case of a minister’s personal assistant accused in sand mafia activities in Mulugu district, `100 crore scam in purchase of bunk beds for Kasturba Gandhi schools, and a similar scam in liquor hologram tenders are all fit cases for SIT investigations. “The government must explain its selective targeting using such investigation,” he said.