Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Wednesday, April 3, sent legal notices to Telangana Congress leaders for defamation after they alleged he was involved in a phone tapping case. KTR sent notices to minister Konda Surekha, MLA Yennam Srinivas Reddy, and another Congress leader K Mahender Reddy.
The former minister has also sent legal notices to some media organisations and YouTube channels. He warned that if an apology wasn’t issued in a week, he would initiate defamation proceedings.
KTR had earlier said that he would not hesitate to take legal action against anyone making ‘baseless allegations’ against him, not even Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
The BRS leader said that Environment and Forest Minister Konda Surekha has been served the legal notice for making "false, slanderous and libelous statements" that he was involved in the alleged phone tapping.
The notice states that the allegations reek of her malafide intention to tarnish the reputation, image, and goodwill of the BRS MLA.
On Monday, addressing a press conference Konda Surekha had alleged that KTR indulged in phone tapping and threatened female film actors. She also stated that KTR and his father, former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), would be arrested very soon for the scam. The statement was made in the context of BRS MLC and KCR’s daughter K Kavitha’s current imprisonment in the Delhi excise policy case.
The same day, senior Congress leader K Mahendar Reddy from Sircilla also filed a complaint with Hyderabad police commissioner Kothakota Sreenivasa Reddy that his phone was tapped during the Assembly elections. He stated that based on the phone tapping, senior BRS leaders threatened him not to encourage BRS corporators from Rajanna Sircilla district to join the Congress.
MLA Srinivas Reddy had earlier lodged a complaint with DGP Ravi Gupta about the tapping of his phones ahead of the polls. He claimed that this was done on the orders of a former BRS minister.