Congress alleges police harassed social media dept at behest of PM, HM

Congress social media dept professionals 'harassed' by police at behest of PM, HM: Shrinate

The Congress on Monday alleged that professionals working for its social media department are being ''harassed'' and ''intimidated'' by police at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

It also claimed that the BJP leaders are in a ''panic'' due to the prospect of a defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

The opposition party's assertion came days after the Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested a national coordinator of the Congress' social media team for allegedly uploading and circulating online a doctored video of Shah.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said elections for two phases are over and the third phase is on Tuesday.

''Narendra Modi and the BJP are going to lose the elections badly. Because the public has understood the conspiracy of the BJP, people have come to know that if the BJP wins, it will abolish reservation and the Constitution,'' Shrinate, who heads the party's social media department, said during a press conference at the AICC headquarters in the national capital.

''Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are seeing defeat before themselves. Therefore, on his instructions, professionals working with the Congress social media team are being arrested and their devices confiscated. This shows the panic and cowardice of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah,'' she said.

''Professionals are being intimidated at the behest of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. These professionals are the people who chose the ideology of Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose and stood with the Congress. The BJP is scaring those who chose truth and justice and rejected your false worship,'' Shrinate said.

''If you have the courage, then fight a political battle,'' she said, challenging the BJP.

Instead of fighting face to face, harassing young professionals on social media shows the BJP leaders' frustration and cowardice, she said.

''The prime minister, who runs the world's biggest fake news factory, and the home minister, who boasts about this fake news factory, are scared. You got so scared that you started going after the professional youth,'' Shrinate alleged.

''But today, these youth have decided that they will take power from you,'' she added.

Shrinate said ''Amit Shah's Delhi Police'' takes action with great enthusiasm but the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee had lodged a complaint 72 hours ago and no action has been taken on it yet.

''Modi ji … our professional colleagues are not going to be scared of your threats, we will give a befitting reply. We will defeat every lie of yours, we will defeat the conspiracy to destroy the Constitution and reservation,'' she said.

''But we will not let reservation end because it is this reservation that has given the poor, the Dalits, the backward (classes) and the tribals their rights. On June 4, a new prime minister will be elected in the country who will once again lay the foundation of justice, truth and courage in the country,'' she said.

Shrinate alleged that people of the Congress' social media team are being ''harassed''.

''They are being called for questioning without any reason, their devices are being tampered with. But they won't be able to scare us even a little bit. I am extremely happy that our social media team is fighting this with such zeal that the BJP is having sleepless nights … I am proud of my team,'' Shrinate said.

She also hit out at the prime minister over the electoral bonds issue, alleging that he got CBI-ED-IT raids done to secure donations.

Arun Beereddy (37), a native of Telangana's Hyderabad, was arrested from Delhi. He handles the 'Spirit of Congress' account on X.

A police officer said Beereddy works as a national coordinator with the Congress' social media and digital platform cell at the party headquarters.

''He is suspected to be among the ones who uploaded the doctored video on social media and also shared it with other Congress members. He will be interrogated to ascertain if he was also involved in making the video,'' the officer said.

Beereddy is among the prominent members of the social media team of the Congress, according to officials.

Criminal conspiracy charges have been added to the FIR registered in connection with the doctored video of Shah's speech, the Delhi Police said on Saturday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)