Congress govt clamping down on press freedom, says Telugu Scribe reporter after fourth FIR

A week after being granted bail on October 16, Telugu Scribe journalist Gowtham Pothagoni, who already has three FIRs against him, learnt that the police had registered a fourth one. Gowtham was arrested on October 7 for posting a video of a farmer, Mallaya, who praised K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), former Telangana CM and chief of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Like the three FIRs that TNM reported on earlier, the fourth too was registered under sections of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to creation and publication of content intended to incite public mischief, insults to promote breach of peace and promoting enmity between different groups. He has also been charged with Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Gowtham now suspects that there could be more. “There are several more FIRs and I'm in the process of tracking them down,” he told TNM.

In all the FIRs he has been accused of ‘attempting to create political tensions and promoting disharmony among the public’ and ‘insulting Telangana government and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’.

The first and second FIR were registered on September 28 at Karkhana and Vanasthalipuram police stations based on the complaints of a businessman named Shaik Ashraf and Anumakonda Bhargav, a student. The third FIR against Gowtham was registered on September 29, based on the complaint of a farmer named I Rama Chandra Reddy at Manchal police station.

The fourth FIR, which Gowtham came to know of a week ago, was registered at Green Pharmacity police station on September 29 by a businessman named Madhukar Reddy.

Telugu Scribe is considered to be a channel which favours the BRS and has been pulled up in the past for allegedly abusing Congress leaders.

In the video, the farmer identified as Mallaya is seen addressing KCR: “We hope you win at least this time around. There is no water, no food to eat. We hope you come back to power KCR. I am a farmer from Mushampalli… I am becoming an alcoholic, I wish to die. My younger son has passed away. I'll get others along to vote for you because you need to come back to power. I used to get Rythu Bandhu (the BRS’ farmer welfare scheme), but now I am ridden with debts. I'll vote for you even if you are in Delhi, you have my word,” Mallaya said.

While all the four FIRs refer to farmer Mallaya’s video, the remand report mentions three videos Gowtham posted where public can be seen abusing CM Revanth and saying that he should be “slippered.”The remand report also mentions a fourth video posted by Gowtham with the caption “Daily routine of Revanth Reddy”. The video of the CM was morphed with visuals of a woman, which the remand report said was meant to “degrade the character of the CM.”

Gowtham said the videos he posted had a satirical undertone to them and these charges were a clampdown on press freedom.

“After I got anticipatory bail in the case against me at Manchal police station, I had to go to the station to sign the police register. The writer at Manchal said there are complaints against me in every mandal in Telangana. I was surprised. He then called up the adjoining mandal and got hold of the Green Pharmacity FIR as proof,” Gowtham said.

TNM spoke to two of the four complainants, who identified themselves as members of the Congress party in Telangana. One of them said he works with the social media wing of the Telangana Congress. The other two complainants were unavailable for comment.

Gowtham’s remand report said he had met BRS’ social media head Sathish Reddy in 2022 and since then made videos for BRS and posted the same on his X handle (formerly Twitter). It also accused him of creating three other accounts on X to “post abusive and objectionable content against CM Revanth.”

“I know Sathish Reddy in a personal capacity. I was only in touch with him and not the party,” Gowtham said, adding that additional X profiles were made to view the accounts of politicians who blocked his main profile.

Gowtham was released on bail after the court ordered him to ‘execute a personal bond of Rs 10,000’ with two local sureties. He was also asked to surrender his passport.

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