‘Doctored’ video of Amit Shah: Delhi Police summons Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, Congress worker held in Assam

While Shah has previously said the BJP would remove the 4 per cent reservation for Muslims that is in place in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the video being circulated was allegedly doctored using deepfake technology to make it seem like Shah was saying all reservations, including of SCs and STs, would be scrapped.

“Officers from Delhi Police visited the Gandhi Bhavan (Congress headquarters in Hyderabad) and interacted with the legal team of our social media cell. They also presented the summons issued under CrPC section 91 to social media cell in-charge M Satish,” said Congress leader T Jayaprakash Reddy, adding that he did not know if the video being shared on social media was doctored.

Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge at a rally in Yadgir district, Monday. (PTI)

Revanth Reddy, who is also the president of the Congress’s Telangana unit, was campaigning in Karnataka on Monday. At a rally in Gulbarga, he alleged that the BJP was now “using the Delhi Police to win elections”.

“(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji and Amit Shah ji have been using the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department, and the CBI to win elections so far. Now, I got information that Delhi Police reached the Telangana Congress office, because of some posts on social media, with a notice saying they want to arrest the Telangana Congress president – the Chief Minister of Telangana,” Reddy said.

“This means Narendra Modi is now using the Delhi Police to win elections… Yahan par koi darne wale nahi hai bhai…Yahan par palat ke jawab dene wale hai (Here, we are not scared…instead, we will give a fitting reply)… In the coming election, we will defeat Modi and Shah in Karnataka and Telangana,” he said.

An official of the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office said Revanth Reddy would respond to the summons after returning from Karnataka.

A senior Delhi Police officer said the notice was issued after the BJP filed a complaint with the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit. An FIR alleged that the video was uploaded in a bid to create disharmony among communities and adversely affect the law-and-order situation.

The Assam Police also filed an FIR at Panbazar police station in Guwahati in connection with the “circulation of a distorted and motivated tweet on the Union Home Minister”.

On Monday, it arrested 31-year-old Reetam Singh, a Gauhati High Court lawyer and coordinator of the Congress’s election War Room, after he made a post on X on Saturday with the allegedly doctored video.

Singh had been a member of the Congress’s students wing, the National Students’ Union of India, before joining the AAP in 2022. Later, he returned to the Congress.

“He is the War Room coordinator, but what he has posted was on his personal account and was a personal opinion, not from an official handle of the party. We are moving for his bail now,” said Assam Congress spokesperson Mehdi Alam Bora.

During campaigning for Assembly elections in Telangana in November last year, Shah and several other BJP leaders had said that the party was against religion-based reservation, and called the 4 per cent Muslim reservation in the state unconstitutional. They had said Muslim reservation would be removed if the party was voted to power in the state. However, it was the Congress that formed the government in Telangana following last year’s election.