Interesting as it might sound, media baron T Narendra Chowdary, chairman of popular Telugu television channel NTV, filed a civil defamation suit against a senior journalist running a news website for publishing the story that allegedly tarnished the former’s image.
Chowdary, on behalf of Rachana Television Private Limited served a legal notice to Vasireddy Srinivas, who runs the news website Telugugateway.com a week ago, saying that a defamation case was filed against him in the XXV Additional chief judge, City Civil Court at Hyderabad.
The NTV chairman asked for a damage of Rs 50 lakh from Vasireddy for allegedly tarnishing his reputation as a media baron in the society.
He said he had also filed an interim application in the court seeking to grant ad-interim Injunction against Vasireddy and his office staff from publishing defamatory statements, pending disposal of the defamation suit.
Accordingly, the court issued injunction order and posted the case to November 15. The court asked Vasireddy to appear for hearing on the same day.
Vasireddy, in his news portal, carried a story some time ago, alleging financial irregularities in the Jubilee Hills Cooperative Society during the regime of Narendra Chowdary as president in the past.
The story said there was a misappropriation of nearly Rs 29 crore pertaining to a construction in the land belonging to the society.