Sacked chief executive officer of popular television news channel TV9 V Ravi Prakash on Wednesday could not get anticipatory bail from the high court to avoid being arrested by the Hyderabad police in connection with the forgery and criminal conspiracy case filed by the channel’s new management.
The court said it was too early for Ravi Prakash to seek the bail and if really thinks he could be arrested, he could approach the court again.
It would mean Ravi Prakash is now compelled to appear before the police for questioning with regard to the notice issued to him under Section 41-A of criminal procedure code.
Interestingly, even as the Hyderabad police said they were on the lookout for Ravi Prakash who is said to be underground, his interviews appeared in two media houses: One in Hindustan Times and another in popular digital media – The News Minute. Apparently, he gave interviews to both the media while being underground.
In the interviews, Ravi Prakash cried foul over the way My Home Group headed by J Rameshwar Rao, who has the backing of the powers-that-be in Telangana, made a backdoor entry into the Associated Broadcasting Company Private Limited (ABCL) by buying majority stakes in Alanda Media and Entertainment Limited.
Stating that he had never stopped the majority stakeholders taking over the management, Ravi Prakash said what he had objected to was the breach of original agreement that he would be continued as the CEO of the channel and the promoters would not interfere in the day-to-day operations of the channel, including content management.
“But the moment Rameshwara Rao and his men managed to get the majority shares, they started dictating terms to the staff over what to telecast and what not to, and since I had resisted them strongly, they forced me go out of the channel on the pretext on non-performance,” he lamented.
He wondered how turning around the company as a no. 1 channel in the regional news segment and a profitable venture with a turnover of Rs 255 crore could be called a non-performance.
He vowed to fight out the builders and contractors’ lobby in the journalism.