The Supreme Court on Friday, June 13, granted bail to Telugu journalist Kommineni Srinivas Rao (KSR) following his arrest by the Andhra Pradesh police over derogatory remarks about women from the Amaravati region made by a panelist during a debate on Telugu news channel Sakshi TV. A bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan passed the order in a writ petition filed by the journalist challenging his arrest and remand. Srinivas was arrested in Hyderabad on June 9 and remanded to judicial custody.
The court questioned the rationale behind arresting Srinivas for a comment he did not make. "Someone else is making the statement. How can this be?" Justice Manmohan asked.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared on behalf of the Andhra Pradesh government, argued that Srinivas was “goading and abetting the man who was making that statement and laughing,”.
To this, Justice Manmohan responded, "When someone makes an outrageous statement, we laugh it off. That doesn’t make us co-conspirators."
The controversy began on June 6 during a panel discussion on Srinivas Rao’s show, when political analyst VV Krishnamraju referred to the state capital, Amaravati, as the “capital of sex workers.” He made the remark while citing findings from a recently released study by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), which noted that Andhra Pradesh has the second-highest concentration of female sex workers in India.
The remark triggered outrage, with the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jana Sena leaders calling it an insult to the women and culture of Amaravati.
Krishnamraju was arrested on June 11 near the Gosthani River in Bheemili, Visakhapatnam district. Two others who were with him at the time were also taken into custody. All three were being transported to Vijayawada. Meanwhile, a case was also registered against the management of Sakshi TV on June 9 in connection with the incident.