The Hyderabad cybercrime police have summoned election strategist Sunil Kanugolu for an inquiry related to alleged offensive social media posts targeting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his family members. Kanugolu, who was engaged by the Telangana Congress to devise campaign strategies for the upcoming state assembly elections, has challenged these summons in the Telangana high court.

He filed a petition seeking a stay on the execution of the summons. A Telangana Congress official mentioned that the high court is scheduled to hear the petition on Friday. Under Section 41-A of the Criminal Procedure Code, Kanugolu was served with notices to appear before the Cybercrime police on Friday for questioning.

On December 13, the cybercrime police conducted a raid at Kanugolu’s office, Mindshare United Foundation, located in Madhapur, Hyderabad. During the raid, computers, laptops, and mobile phones were confiscated. Three individuals who were associated with Kanugolu, namely Menda Sri Pratap, Shashank, and Trishank Sharma, were detained based on a complaint by a Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) worker regarding derogatory videos and messages posted on social media targeting KCR, his family members, and other party leaders. After questioning, the police released them but identified Kanugolu as the primary suspect in the case. However, he was out of the country when the raid occurred. Following his return to Hyderabad last week, the police issued notices to him, instructing him to appear before the investigating officer on December 30 for questioning.