KOLLU ANKABABU Vs. TIRUPATHI RAMESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri T. Sreedhar, learned counsel for the petitioner and Smt. Y.L. Siva Kalpana Reddy, learned Special Public Prosecutor for CID appearing for the 2nd respondent.

(2.) This criminal petition has been filed to quash Crime No.61 of 2022 of CID Police Station, Amaravati, Mangalagiri, Guntur District. The allegations in the complaint are that the petitioner, who is a journalist, and who was the administrator of a Whatsapp group, had forwarded a media post that a large amount of gold had been seized by the authorities in Gannavaram Airport from a passenger, who had arrived from Dubai. The social media post further stated that a special team from Hyderabad had arrived and was conducting an enquiry which showed that the wife of a key-officer in the Chief Minister's office is said to be the person from whom the gold had been seized and that this person had assistance of two senior officers, who were all being investigated. This message is said to have been forwarded from a Whatsapp group called "Time to Time News".

(3.) The aforesaid complaint was given by a person said to be working in the Chief Minister's office as assistant manager. Apart from setting out the contents of the above message, the de facto complainant had also stated that the petitioner herein, who had posted this message in social media, had a history of posting such messages which were untrue and designed to create enmity between various groups in the State.