New Delhi: A day after it detained a national coordinator of the Congress social media team, the Delhi Police announced on Saturday that criminal conspiracy charges had been added to the FIR filed in relation to the doctored video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's speech.
Arun Beereddy, who managed the "Spirit of Congress" account on X and is originally from Hyderabad, Telangana, was taken into custody on Friday in Delhi, according to the police. The Delhi Police have now made their first arrest in relation to this matter.
"We have added section 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the FIR as investigation has indicated to a larger conspiracy," a police officer said.
Beereddy is among the prominent members of the Congress' social media team and he is accused of being among those who uploaded the doctored video on social media and also shared it with other members of the party, according to officials, PTI reported.
Following his arrest, he was produced before a court here on Friday night and it sent him to three days in custody for further interrogation by the police's Special Cell.
The interrogation of Beereddy has started, the officials said.
Initially, the cell on a complaint from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which comes under the home ministry, had registered the FIR on Sunday under IPC sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth), 465 (punishment for forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 171G (false statement in connection with an election).
The FIR also has the Information Technology (IT) Act's section 66C which deals with fraudulent or dishonest use of electronic signatures, passwords or any other unique identification feature of a person.