The Congress unit of Telangana on Wednesday protested in the state against the police raid on the office of its election strategist Sunil Kanugolu, even as police named him as prime accused in cases registered over alleged abusive posts against chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi government.

The Hyderabad police on Wednesday said they had detained three people for questioning in connection with the alleged posting of derogatory videos and messages on the social media targeting KCR and his family members, besides other party leaders.

“They were let off after serving them notices under Section 41 of Criminal Procedure Code, seeking an explanation from them,” Hyderabad joint commissioner of police (detective department) Dr Gajarao Bhupal told reporters on Wednesday.

The three accused Menda Sri Pratap, Shashank and Trishank Sharma, are working for Sunil Kanugolu, the political strategist hired by the Telangana Congress for the next year’s assembly elections.

“Sunil Kanugolu, who is the prime suspect in the case, has not been given notices yet. He is not available for examination,” Bhupal said.

On Tuesday night, the police had raided the office of Mindshare United Foundation, Madhapur, and seized computers, laptops and mobile phones. The Telangana Congress, however, claimed that it was the party’s war room and alleged that the police had illegally trespassed into the premises and taken away important data belonging to the party.

The Congress leaders and cadre took out rallies and staged dharnas all over the state protesting the police raids. The party leaders even staged a protest before the BRS office in the national capital Delhi.

The joint police commissioner, however, said the office of Mindshare United Foundation did not have any indications that it was working for the Congress. “We are not aware if the office is linked to the Congress, as there is no board anywhere,” he said.

He said the three people detained confessed “they were working for Kanugolu and at the behest of their supervisors, were posting abusive and derogatory content on social media platforms”.

Bhupal said the workers at the office were using fake IP addresses to upload and share the content on social media. With the help of latest cybercrime detection tools, we tracked down the office and on raiding the place, came to know that it belongs to Konugolu, he said. He said abusive content was posted with different names on social media platforms.

“They were doing it for the last six months and cases were registered with Hyderabad cybercrime, Gopalapuram, Monda Market, Chandrayangutta and Amberpet police stations,” he said.

“In a democracy, opposition over political views is acceptable and healthy but personal attacks on anyone do not come under criticism,” Bhupal said.

AICC general secretary in-charge of Telangana affairs and MP Manickam Tagore on Wednesday condemned the police raids. He shared the original post and images posted by Kanugolu’s team members, which made alleged sarcastic posts against KCR and his daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha.

“For this FB post, Telangana Congress War room headed by #SunilKanugolu team at Hyderabad was raided and 50 computers taken.. Data stolen.. Five of our Proffesional partners arrested illegally without FIR ..Now I am posting the same let @TelanganaCMO arrest me… #HitlerKCR (sic),” Tagore tweeted.

Telangana PCC president A Revanth Reddy said the cyber police were terrorising the staff at the Congress’ war room and it indicated how terrified KCR was of the Congress. “No copy of any FIR was shown or made available to the Congress leaders before they were arrested,” he said.

PCC vice-president and ex-MP Mallu Ravi, who was put under house arrest when he tried to stage a dharna in Hyderabad, alleged that the police had seized cell phones and computers from the social media and strategic office of Congress.