
The Telangana High Court has directed the CBI not to take coercive steps, including arrest, against two directors of Vihaan Direct Selling India Private Limited for four weeks in connection with the alleged suicide of a Siddipet man who suffered financial losses after investing in QNet. Justice J. Srinivas Rao declined to stay the investigation or quash the FIR but ordered the CBI to file its counter-affidavit within four weeks. The next hearing is in November 2026.

The case relates to Badugu Harikrishna, who died allegedly by suicide in October 2025. The original FIR named QNet and online betting and gaming applications but not the directors, Dilip Raj Pukkella and Mohammed Imtiaz, who contend they were implicated only during the investigation. The CBI argued that several cases are registered against the firm and that the directors were not cooperating with the probe. The petitioners said they were not named in the original complaint and that the transactions were genuine product purchases.
Both Deccan Chronicle and Times of India give the same straight report of the High Court's interim protection order, the CBI's non-cooperation argument, and the directors' claim they were not in the original FIR. Neither outlet frames the story as pro-government or government-critical. Deccan Chronicle leads with the court's direction to the CBI, while Times of India adds detail about the CBI's multi-crore scam allegation. The balanced reading is that the court has granted temporary relief without halting the investigation, leaving the CBI's larger fraud claims for the November hearing.
Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): deccanchronicle.com (neutral report), timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.