After consulting legal luminaries, the Hyderabad city police on Thursday registered a criminal case against AICC general secretary in-charge of AP & Telangana affairs Digvijaya Singh for
claiming that the Telangana police had set up a bogus site of terror outfit Islamic State to trap Muslim youths.
The Jubilee Hills police registered a case against the AICC leader following complaints from Jubilee Hills MLA M Gopinath and another person.
The case was registered under Sections 505 (1) (publishing material with intention to cause fear among people), 505(1)(b) intentionally causing alarm among public) and 505(2) (statements conducive to public mischief) of Indian Penal Code.
Police said that they would summon Singh for interrogation if necessary.
The complaints were made on May 1, the day when Singh posted his controversial tweets.
In his tweets, the AICC leader had claimed that the Telangana police had set up a bogus ISIS site which was radicalizing Muslim youths and encouraging them to join IS modules. He had also asked whether Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had permitted these acts.
Aghast over the AICC leader's sensational remarks, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu, all Telangana ministers, and Rajya Sabha member and former APCC chief Dharmapuri Srinivas lashed out at him.
The tweets of Singh prompted the TRS government and leaders to ask him to either unconditionally withdraw the allegations or show evidence. IT & MAUD Minister K T Rama Rao said that if Singh failed to withdraw the allegations, the government would be constrained to consider other options.
"Most irresponsible and reprehensible thing coming from a former CM. Request you to withdraw these comments unconditionally or provide evidence," the minister had tweeted.
Telangana Director General of Police Anurag Sharma lamented that the baseless allegations from a responsible AICC leader would lower the morale and image of the the state police which was engaged in fighting the anti-national forces on a daily basis. Singh, however, said that
he stood by his comments. He told a television channel that whatever he said was based on the information received from his sources, and after verifying the same with many people.