A city court in Hyderabad granted bail to two journalists from Telugu news channel NTV on Thursday. The case involved the telecast of an alleged defamatory story about a minister and a woman IAS officer. Reporter Dasari Sudheer and input editor Donthu Ramesh, who were arrested, were released on bail after the magistrate rejected the police’s request for judicial custody.
The journalists were instructed to surrender their passports and not leave the city without permission. During the remand arguments, it was highlighted that the police had not recorded statements from those claimed to be victims in the case. Following their release, Donthu Ramesh stated that they had faced mental harassment for 24 hours.
Ramesh criticized the government for arresting them without any crime and subjecting them to mental torture. He questioned the formation of the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The Hyderabad Police Commissioner mentioned that a case was registered against certain Telugu news channels for airing wrong allegations against a senior woman officer.
