New Delhi: A stand-up comedian who was detained and later arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police on April 14 over allegations that his online video insulted Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan was granted bail on Thursday (April 16).Police personnel presented Anudeep Katikala before magistrate Sridevi at her residence at 9:30 p.m. on April 16. The magistrate set him free at approximately 3 a.m. the following day without judicial remand. The magistrate rejected the police’s request for judicial remand.Speaking to The Wire, advocates Y. Rajesh and Md. Iqbal of the Human Rights Forum (HRF), who advanced arguments on behalf of Katikala, condemned the police procedure. They provided a detailed statement breaking down the alleged illegalities of the arrest.“The IIIrd additional judicial first class magistrate of Kakinada set stand-up comedian, Anudeep Katikala, free on a personal bond in Crime No. 62 of 2026, when the police presented him before the Hon’ble Judge Sridevi at her residence on the evening of 16.04.2026,” the advocates stated.They noted that Katikala was brought to Kakinada from Prayagraj on the morning of April 16 before police sought his remand. “The remand report submitted by the Kakinada I Town police is full of lies, misleading statements, contradictions, and devoid of law,” the legal team said.Highlighting discrepancies in the timeline, the advocates stated: “For instance, it is [an] utter lie that the Kakinada I Town Police served a notice under Section 35(3) of BNSS on Anudeep Katikala on 14.04.2026 asking him to appear before them within 2 days, and that he duly appeared along with his father, and subsequently he was arrested due to apprehensions that he is a flight risk and may repeat the crime.”“In fact, no notice under Section 35(3) was served on Anudeep Katikala on 14.04.2026. He was directly taken into custody on the evening of 14.04.2026 from Prayagraj where his father works,” they added.The advocates further argued that the arrest violated recent judicial precedents. “At the same time, no written grounds of arrest were supplied to the accused as is now required following the Mihir Rajesh Shah v/s State of Maharashtra (2025) judgement by the Supreme Court,” they stated. “Such non-supply of grounds renders the arrest illegal, and the Supreme Court, on more than one occasion, stressed this point and also set people free on this ground.”The official remand report, accessed by The Wire, submitted by police inspector M. Naga Durga Rao outlines a sharply different sequence of events and reveals the extensive cyber-surveillance utilised to locate the comedian.According to the document, police personnel sought IP logs and device details from YouTube. They also utilised Call Detail Records (CDR), Customer Application Forms (CAF), and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) to track Katikala’s primary Jio number, alternative contact numbers, and a specific X account (@mygotshiva).Upon discovering he was in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, the police used the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) portal to secure an interstate passport. A team comprising sub-inspector P. Venkata China Swamy Naidu and two constables, L. Siva Kumar and K. Rambabu, was dispatched.The police document alleges the team served Katikala a Section 35(3) notice in Prayagraj. It states he voluntarily appeared before the investigating officer in Kakinada at 1 p.m. on April 16 alongside his father, who is a central government employee in Uttar Pradesh.Inspector Rao’s report states Katikala was formally arrested at 2:50 p.m. because he “failed to give any proper and cogent reasons in compliance to the notice.” Crucially, the police justified the arrest by stating his continued freedom might “provoke the followers of [the] deputy chief minister,” thereby disrupting public peace.The remand report also contains a highly detailed biographical confession. It identifies Katikala as a 30-year-old from the Scheduled Caste (SC) Madiga community, listing his family members too. It traces his corporate history, noting he worked at software firms Udaan and Infinity Learner after graduating from IIT Bombay, before founding the ‘Silly South’ comedy collective in February 2024.According to the police document, Katikala allegedly admitted to recording a 29-minute video titled ‘Babu Lake Babu’ and uploading it on April 8 using an iPhone 14.“Driven by the desire to become famous on social media and under the misguided belief that I could achieve rapid fame by posting vulgar videos that defamed well-known public figures, I spoke about Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM Konidela Pawan Kalyan, Ram Charan, Niharika, Nagababu, Balakrishna, Mahesh, and Naresh,” the alleged confession reads.Police personnel seized the midnight blue iPhone 14, noting its passcode and IMEI number as evidence.The investigation was initiated following a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Bade Venkata Krishna, a 51-year-old manpower supplier for shipping companies and a Jana Sena Party joint secretary. The complainant alleged that the YouTube video used sarcastic and obscene language to damage the reputation of Kalyan and his family members.Katikala faces multiple charges, including Section 356(2) for criminal defamation, Section 353(2) for public mischief, and Section 79 for intending to insult the modesty of a woman under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), alongside Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.