Senior YSR Congress party leader and former Andhra Pradesh power minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has served notices on newspapers and television channels which carried negative reports against him in the alleged burning of files in the Madanapalli sub-collector office.
According to party sources, Peddireddy sought to seek damages to the extent of Rs 50 crore from each media house, including the newspapers and channels, which allegedly spread the news that the files that were burnt in the Madanapalli office were related to land dealings of him and his family members.
In the first step, he sent legal notices to the media houses seeking unconditional apology from them for carrying scandalous news against him and his family members without any basis or evidence.
“Depending on their response, Peddireddy will file civil defamation suites against them as a next step,” the party sources said.
The former minister said some vested interests were deliberately spreading false news against him.
“We shall take stringent action against them. Some media houses are deliberately carrying reports, damaging my reputation,” he said.
It may be mentioned that the state government had handed over the Madanapalli sub-collector office fire incident to the Crime Investigation Department.
Investigations revealed that as many as 2,400 files were completely burnt to ashes and another 700 files were partially burnt.
The CID probe has disclosed that it was not an accident but was deliberately done.
As many as 32 people were questioned during the investigation, including Madhava Reddy, a close follower of Peddireddy, his relative Ramakrishna Reddy, former MLA Nawaz Basha and follower of Peddireddy’s son Mithun Reddy. Eight persons were arrested till date, the police said.