The Supreme Court today stayed a Telangana High Court order which had allowed the state police to take into custody two women journalists, despite bail having already been granted to them in a case related to an alleged objectionable video against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order after hearing Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, who appeared on behalf of the petitioner journalists.
During the hearing, Dave argued that taking a person into police custody after the grant of bail, without the bail having been cancelled, is not permissible. He submitted that while the police may call an accused for the purpose of investigation, they cannot take the person into custody as long as the bail order remains in effect. Hearing these submissions, the bench issued notice to the respondent-State.
The case pertains to an objectionable video against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, which was circulated on social media platform X. According to the FIR, the video showed a Pulse TV representative posing provocative questions to a person, who then made abusive and derogatory remarks against the Chief Minister.
Based on these allegations, the petitioners—Managing Director and News Reporter of Pulse News—were booked under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act and Sections 11, 61(2), 352 and 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
As per the petition, the journalists were granted bail by the Judicial Magistrate’s Court on March 17. However, nearly 200 days later, without the bail being cancelled, they were sought to be placed in police custody for further questioning. The petition states that they have been regularly appearing before the Investigating Officer and cooperating with the investigation, and that no cogent reason has been given for their custody at this stage.
The petitioners also claim that the police have already seized multiple devices from the office of petitioner No.1, a senior journalist, as well as personal devices belonging to her and her husband.
“It is submitted that this is a classic case of the police high-handedness of the State on the senior journalists of the society to please their political superiors and to harass the life of the petitioners and as such the order granting police custody is mechanical, unreasoned and liable to be set aside,” the plea states.
According to the prosecution, the petitioners had the responsibility to edit the material before it was telecast. Their custody was sought as the police intended to seize their mobile phones and other electronic storage devices containing the abusive videos against Chief Minister Reddy.
The case is titled Pogadadabnda Revathi and Another vs. The State of Telangana, SLP (Crl) No. 16536/2025.
