The CBI has sought the assistance of United States authorities in locating C. Prabhakar Reddy and Mani Annapureddy, who are wanted in connection with alleged derogatory social media posts against judges and the judiciary.
“We have secured non-bailable warrants against the two accused persons who are based in the U.S. The process of arresting them has been initiated through the diplomatic channels. The YouTube channel of Prabhakar Reddy, who is also known as ‘Punch’ Prabhakar, has been blocked,” said a CBI official.
The agency gathered information about the accused, who are overseas, by issuing Blue Notice through the Interpol.
Six more charge sheets
The CBI has also filed six more charge sheets separately against accused Sridhar Reddy Avuthu, Jalagam Venkata Satyanarayana, Guda Sridhar Reddy, Sreenath Suswaram, Kishore Kumar Darisa and Sudduluri Ajay Amruth. They were allegedly involved in uploading derogatory posts on social media against judges and the judiciary and some verdicts delivered by Judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The CBI arrested these accused on October 22 from different places of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They are currently in judicial custody. Earlier, it arrested five accused and submitted charge sheets against them. “With this, 11 separate charge sheets have been filed against all the 11 accused arrested so far in the case,” the official stated.
As part of the investigation, the agency has seized 13 digital gadgets and gathered call records of 53 mobile connections. It examined 12 accused persons and 14 others. It has also sought information through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty channel on the Facebook profiles of the accused, their Twitter accounts and other activities on social media platforms.
In November last year, the CBI registered case against 16 accused persons to take over the probe into 12 First Information Reports registered by the Andhra Pradesh police following the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s directive.