Political consultancy Inclusive Minds that works for Congress raided in Hyderabad

The Cyberabad Police on Tuesday, December 13, raided the office of political consultancy ‘Inclusive Minds’, creating a flutter in political circles. Inclusive Minds is a political consultancy which works for the Indian National Congress. According to Congress leaders and employees of the company, officers from the Cyber wing of the Cyberabad police raided the office in Madhapur in Hyderabad. Employees told TNM that police personnel landed at the office in plain clothes. Inclusive Minds is a consultancy led by political strategist Sunil Kanugolu. The company handles Congress' political strategy, provides electioneering, policy and governance related advice to the party. 

Alleging police highhandedness, Anil Kumar Yadav, former Telangana Youth Congress president who had rushed to the spot, told TNM, “The police did not give us any notice before barging in. They started going through the documents and questioning the employees. After we reached the office, we asked them to show documents. They panicked and called their senior officers. We are expecting the Joint Commissioner of Police to come here in a while.” 

Condemning the police’s raid, senior Congress leaders like Shabbir Ali and Mallu Ravi protested at the office. They questioned on what basis the police raid was conducted and demanded a copy of the FIR or complaint against Inclusive Minds.

Anil Kumar Yadav alleged that the police refused to even show a copy of the First Information Report. “The police claim someone has filed a complaint but are not revealing who it is or what the complaint is about,” he said. 

An employee who spoke to TNM said, "At about 7 PM, around ten police personnel in plain clothes landed up at the Inclusive Minds Office. There were several other personnel in and around the building. Their presence was intimidating to say the least.”

Another employee said that the police refused to identify themselves but started questioning people present at the office immediately. “They did not want to give us details. We asked for some time and requested them to wait till our seniors arrived but they did not pay heed,” the employee said. 

About 300 employees work at Inclusive Minds at all shifts and phones that are used to upload social media posts are left in the office.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Prasad Rao told the media, “We received five complaints that derogatory posts were being made on the opponent party. We were able to trace the posts that were uploaded from here.” Though the police officer did not mention which party filed the complaint, Congress leaders have called this vindictive action by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. 

Sunil Kanugolu is a senior political strategist who has worked with several political parties over the years. After working with Prashant Kishore and the BJP, Sunil started his own company and managed the DMK for years. He then moved on to handle the AIADMK. A few months ago, Inclusive Minds was roped in by the Congress. 

Strongly condemning the raids at the Congress party’s war room, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president, Revanth Reddy said, “What is this highhandeness of police in our war room? When we are exposing the anti-democratic methods of KCR, police behaving in this manner is not good. We will not tolerate it if the police intervene in our affairs,” he warned.