The CBI has arrested two more persons in an on-going investigation of a case relating to making derogatory posts on social media against judges and the judiciary.
The two arrested accused, Pattapu Aadarsh and Lavanuru Samba Siva Reddy, will be produced before the Competent Court, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, officials said.
Earlier on July 28, the agency had arrested two accused — Dhami Reddy Konda Reddy (currently in judicial custody) and Pamula Sudheer (currently in police custody till August 10).
The first arrest in the case was made by the CBI on July 9. The accused Lingareddy Rajasekhar Reddy, earlier working in Kuwait, was also remanded to judicial custody by the court.
Till now, five people have been arrested by CBI in the case. The CBI had registered a case on November 11 last year against 16 people and took over the investigation of 12 FIRs from the CID, of Andhra Pradesh. The cases were taken over by the CBI in pursuance of the orders of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in response to a writ petition.
The original FIRs were registered on the complaints from the Registrar General of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The cases were registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to promoting enmity between various groups on grounds of religion, intentional insult and criminal intimidation besides relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.
“It was alleged that the accused, by intentionally targeting the judiciary, made derogatory posts on social media platforms against judges and judiciary, following some court verdicts delivered by the judges of High Court of Andhra Pradesh,” the agency said.
After registration of the case, CBI traced 13 of the 16 accused named in the FIR in the case on various digital platforms. Three out of them were found to be abroad. The CBI has so far examined 11 out of the 13 accused persons and arrested five out of them, it said.
To investigate the larger conspiracy, the CBI has also examined certain persons including an MP, former MLA and also continued investigation into the role of other persons who were not mentioned in the FIR.
Action was also initiated by the CBI, after it had registered this case to get objectionable posts removed from the social media platforms, public domains and a lot of such posts/accounts were removed from the internet.