Supreme Court Halts Re-arrest of Telangana Journalists in Social Media Case Against Chief Minister

The Supreme Court has granted temporary relief to two female journalists from Telangana by staying their re-arrest order. Pogadadanda Revathi and Thanvi Yadav, who work for Pulse News, were initially arrested on March 12 for allegedly sharing abusive content against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on social media platforms.

During Thursday's proceedings, a bench consisting of Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vikram Nath suspended the Telangana High Court's order and issued notice to the state government, requesting a response to the journalists' petition.

The journalists had approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday following the High Court's decision to uphold a lower court ruling. This re-arrest order came after the state challenged the initial bail granted to them.

The journalists' legal representatives requested an urgent hearing before Chief Justice BR Gavai, expressing concerns that the women could be taken into custody again at any moment.

The original arrest was carried out by the Cyber Crime division of Hyderabad Police. The journalists faced multiple serious accusations including publishing obscene material, organized crime participation, criminal conspiracy, spreading inflammatory rumors, and provoking breach of peace.

Prosecutors argued that their social media posts should be considered 'highly provocative' with potential to incite violence, and represented a 'deliberate attempt by Pulse TV to defame and spread propaganda'.

After five days in custody, a local court had granted bail to the journalists, which was later contested by the state authorities.

The controversy began when a video featuring Yadav interviewing someone making derogatory remarks about the Congress party and Chief Minister went viral online. Revathi allegedly shared this video on her personal social media account, further amplifying its reach.