Telangana Cong chief Revanth responds to KTR’s legal notice, threatens criminal action

Responding to the Rs 100 crore defamation suit filed by Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR), state Congress president and Malkajgiri MP Revanth Reddy sent him a similar legal notice, threatening to initiate civil and criminal proceedings if the Minister did not withdraw the charges immediately.

On March 28, KTR sent legal notices to Revanth and to state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleging that they made defamatory statements from March 17 to 25 with regard to the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak, and sought Rs 100 crore each in damages. Following the paper leak row, the Opposition leaders had alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Minister KTR had a role in the malpractice.

Read: TSPSC question paper leak: Why police summoned Telangana Opposition leaders

The notice sent by Revanth Reddy’s lawyer, Kumar Vaibhav, said that the defamation suit by KTR was a strategy to silence him from raising questions. Stating that he did not make any defamatory statements against KTR during the said dates, the notice read, “It is clear that the ruling party leader has devised this strategy to muzzle the Opposition leaders and the critical voices. The scheme adopted by your leader will have a deep impact on freedom and democracy.”

Revanth Reddy replied that as a representative of the Opposition it was his duty to ensure accountability from the ruling party. He said that the Minister cannot wash his hands off when being questioned. Revanth claimed that it was KTR who was influencing the ongoing investigation into the TSPSC paper leak by disclosing details of the probe in public. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the case and a total of 17 people have been arrested so far.

Revanth also faulted the SIT for allegedly sharing sensitive information at the behest of the ruling party. “My client states that there is an active role of your client in influencing not only the investigation but also the public discourse around the current crisis through press conferences.” The notice said that KTR had attempted to divert the narrative from the systemic failure allegedly caused due to corrupt functioning of state institutions and further stressed the need for an unbiased investigation. In the case, a TSPSC staff member, P Praveen Kumar, was named as the prime accused while A Raja Sekhar, network administrator in TSPSC, was listed as the second accused. According to Revanth, both these accused were made “scapegoats”.

The notice also pointed out that employment for the people of Telangana was one of the prime reasons for the separate statehood movement. He said that the TSPSC paper leak is an injustice to the unemployed and had also belittled the very struggle of the movement.