AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed TDP leader and former minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao who is currently in hiding to appear before the CID headquarters on April 29. This was in relation to the case registered against him by the AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) for posting morphed videos of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during the Tirupati Lok Sabha Elections campaign.

In a set back to the TDP leader who had filed a petition seeking the court to dismiss the case, Justice Raghunandhan Rao instructed that he appear before the CID and adjourned his petition to May 7.

The CID had earlier registered a case against the senior TDP leader Devineni Uma for allegedly morphing a video and playing the clip while addressing the media in Tirupati on April 7 and posting it on his Twitter account on the same day, with a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.

YSRCP’s Kurnool district legal cell president Narayana Reddy lodged a complaint with the CID against him, stating that the clip was morphed to portray the Chief Minister in poor light.

Based on the complaint filed by Narayana Reddy with the CID a case was registered under various sections of the IPC including sections 464, 465, 468, 469, 470, 471, 505 and 120B against Devineni Uma.

It was later transferred to the Kurnool CID unit for further probe. Meanwhile, Devineni Uma went into hiding without attending the CID hearing or responding to the notices. Notices were issued to him to appear before the CID on the 15th and 19th of this month.

The Andhra Pradesh Fact Checking team in its website also clearly showed how the video was doctored and has found that the video shared by the ex-minister is actually a morphed video created using video and audio from different videos 6 years apart in a timeline.

#FactCheck The video shared by Ex-Minister @DevineniUma has been found to be morphed using different video and audio, 6 years apart in the timeline.

Here's a simplified video for you to understand the malicious intent by the editors. https://t.co/urh0cFTjfD pic.twitter.com/1E7s5suhbz
— FactCheck.AP.Gov.in (@FactCheckAPGov) April 8, 2021