Hyderabad: AP police arrested the news editor of a regional newspaper for publishing a pre-poll survey of the Nandyal byelection. The arrested person, Kuna Ajay Babu, published a pre-poll survey on the news site Netibharatham.com about the Nandyal byelection held on August 23.
In the survey it was mentioned that the YSRCP candidate was going to win by a margin of 4,551 votes. The survey was said to be based on an Intelligence report leaked from the AP CMO and was published with the Government of Andhra Pradesh logo.
As publication of poll surveys is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, a complaint was filed by the Returning Officer and a case under charges 420, 468, 471 IPC & Section 126 (1) (b) of the Representation of People Act and the IT Act.
Police found that 'Netibharatham.Com' was controlled by one D. Ranjit Kumar, a web designer based in Hyderabad, and the website administrator is one Kuna Ajay Babu, who is also working as news editor of a regional newspaper in Hyderabad.
"As their culpability was established in the publication of a pre-poll survey on the website and on Facebook with a fabricated document both were arrested and sent to judicial custody," a release said.
