Known for its pro-TDP stand and making no-holds-barred attack on the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh, thereby getting into legal troubles, Andhra Jyothy on Saturday got embroiled in yet another legal issue.
For the first time, collectors of all the 13 districts in the state served legal notices on Andhra Jyothy chairman V Radha Krishna, managing director K Venkateswara Rao, editor K Srinivas and bureau chief of the daily's Andhra edition, for carrying a defamatory and derogatory story on the front page of the daily on Saturday.
The legal notices were served by state public prosecutor P Srinivas Reddy, stating that the baseless report was a deliberate attempt on the entire administrative system.
The report titled: "Honey trap: a tale of two collectors," says a couple of collectors, who were not named, had fallen into the trap of women officials and had done them undue favours.
The collectors felt that the report had tarnished the image of the district administrations, at a time when they were rendering untiring efforts during the Corona virus pandemic.
They said they were playing a key role in implementing the government welfare programmes and extending benefits to the beneficiaries without giving any scope for corruption.
"The collectors' system of AP has a very good name in the entire country. Such a malicious story by Andhra Jyothy was nothing but yellow journalism and a conspiracy against the system," the notice said.