The editor and a reporter of a Telugu newspaper were arrested by the Jubilee Hills police on charges of publishing false news and spreading rumours about the health status of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The newspaper Aaadab Telangana recently published a news report that Mr. Rao had tested positive for coronavirus and is admitted in a corporate hospital.
One Mohammed Illyas of Rahmathnagar in Jubilee Hills on Sunday, lodged a complaint stating that the published news article on Mr. Rao was ‘fake’, and created panic among the general public.
Based on the complaint, the police registered a case under Section 505 (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any rumour or report) of Indian Penal Code and Section 54 of Disaster Management Act, against the publication and the editor.
On Monday, a team of police officials arrested reporter Venkateshwara Rao from Khammam, editor Veeramalla Satyam and sub-editor Shiva from Hyderabad. Venkateshwara Rao, a resident of Tarnaka, had recently gone to his native place Khammam.
