Ponnam Sends Defamation Notices To BRS Leaders, Media Houses

Minister for Transport Ponnam Prabhakar has sent legal notices to BRS leaders including MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and former MP Joginipally Santosh, and media houses including the channel T News and the newspaper Namaste Telangana, for spreading "defamatory and slanderous content with an intention to tarnish his image".

Etooru Purnachander Rao, an advocate of ENS Law Associates, issued the legal notices on behalf of the minister to Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, T News, T News Managing Director Joginapalli Santosh Kumar, Namaste Telangana, Telangana Broadcasting Private Limited Chief Editor Thigulla Krishna Murthy, and Telangana Publications Private Limited.

The leaders and media had reportedly alleged that the minister was making illegal money through fly ash transportation.

The minister said that the fly ash, which was generated from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), was not usable, and was supplied free of cost through a tender process.

"The fly ash is used for building roads and making bricks. It is transported to different places from Ramagundam. The process of fly ash transportation is taken care of by the NTPC authorities. I have nothing to do with this matter. But the BRS MLA made baseless allegations against me claiming that I am earning lakhs of rupees through the transportation of fly ash. It just an attempt to defame my image in the eyes of the people," Ponnam said.

The minister said that the BRS MLA had stopped the lorries in Huzurabad to ask where the fly ash was being loaded, and then levelled baseless allegations that the lorries were overloaded and were being allowed through bribes.

The minister's advocate said that unable to face his client politically, the BRS leader was indulging in malicious propaganda, and that the same content was aired and published in the BRS' media houses.