BRS working president and former BRS minister K T Rama Rao has legal notices to three Congress leaders including Minister Konda Surekha for defamation and slander, following their allegations against him over tapping their phones during the BRS regime.
He also served legal notices to news outlets who are publishing these news without verifying the facts. He demanded that they either apologise for their baseless and nonsensical allegations or face legal consequences.
Meanwhile, KTR categorically denied any involvement in phone tapping or other illegal activities during the BRS regime. He challenged the State government to investigate phone tapping allegations since 2004, accusing Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other Congress leaders of ‘leaking’ information without making any official statements and orchestrating a smear campaign against him.
KTR warned to initiate legal action against the Ministers including the Chief Minister for making baseless allegations against him on the issue. He challenged Revanth Reddy to conduct a thorough investigation into phone tapping incidents since 2004. He urged the government to widen the ambit to include phone tapping allegations made by the then Congress MPs including current Minister Ponnam Prabhakar and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy in 2011 against the then Congress government.
While Minister Konda Surekha alleged that Rama Rao was indulged in phone tapping and threatening of some film personalities, Congress leader KK Mahender Reddy and Mahabubnagar MLA Yennam Srinivasa Reddy complained to the police that their phones were tapped by the police during the Assembly elections at the behest of the BRS working president.
“I have no interest in tapping the phones of individuals. Let me remind all that I received a notification from Apple alerting me that my iPhone was under government surveillance, which was shared on social media. Not just me, many other opposition leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi also received similar notifications,” he said, urging the government to identify the perpetrators and victims of phone tapping incidents.
Vexed with the negative propaganda against him, Rama Rao had recently initiated legal action against various television channels and digital media outlets including Google and Youtube for airing false news and causing defamation. At least 20 news channels and digital media were served notices in this regard.
