The arrest of Ravi Kiran Inturi, a political satirist, happened just a few days after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's son, Nara Lokesh, suggested legal action against those who were deliberately tarnishing the image of the party. He really meant himself and wanted to initiate criminal action against those who were doing this. This anger against social media users was precipitated when recently, a WhatsApp video clip did the rounds of Lokesh extending "greetings" to the people at a public meeting on the occasion of 126th "vardhanti" (death anniversary) of Dr B.R.Ambedkar (instead of “Jayanthi”- the birth anniversary). This angered the scion of the first family of Andhra Pradesh, who is also the general secretary of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
While an extremely presentable 35-year-old young man and a Stanford Management graduate, Lokesh unfortunately does not have the gift of the gab. For that matter neither does Chandrababu Naidu, but where he lacks in grabbing TRP ratings, Naidu makes up with passion, new ideas and a certain child-like enthusiasm. In recent times, Lokesh has been inducted into the cabinet and looks after three portfolios including information technology, panchayat raj and rural development. All eyes are on him and he has got quite the tendency to put his foot in his mouth.
Subsequent to the instruction from the top, the Andhra Pradesh police today detained Ravi, the administrator of the Facebook group page `Political Punch' and who is also associated with the social media wing of the opposition YSR Congress party. The Andhra Pradesh Legisalture secretary, K.Satyanarayana Rao, had lodged a complaint with the police two days ago and a case was registered against Ravi Kumar under provisions of the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code.
The Facebook page, which has many posts targeting the TDP, its president Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh, has over 90,000 followers. A police team from Tulluru in Amaravati swooped down on the residence of Ravi Kiran at Shamshabad on the Hyderabad city outskirts and took him away.
“They woke up my husband and asked him to accompany them. When I questioned who they were, one of them identified himself as a cop and said they were taking my husband to question him on the comments he had posted on the Facebook on the TDP leaders,” Ravi Kiran’s wife Sujana said.
