YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has sent legal notices to two news publications
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday sent legal notices to two publications demanding an unconditional apology for spreading defamatory, false, and scandalous reports about him in connection with the legal proceedings initiated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning the Adani Group.
The notice firmly rejected these claims as false and accused the newspapers of circulating malicious and misleading information about the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president.
"The insinuation and further allegations purported to be sourced from the judicial proceedings in the US are clearly aimed at causing severe damage to my client's reputation as an individual and as a head of the political party being YSRCP, and also to malign my client's functioning as the chief minister of the state between 2019 to 2024," the notice served by Mr Reddy's lawyer to Andhrajyothi newspaper said.
The notice to the other newspaper, Eenadu, worded in similar lines, also said, "... The motive behind the patently false and scandalous allegations is actuated by your animosity, as a newspaper entity and as individuals, towards my client and his family."
"While the motivation is to serve as the media arm of the Telugu Desam political party and its supremo Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, the publications by Eenadu for the past 20 years would clearly indicate, that you, as an entity are aligned politically to the fortunes of the Telugu Desam party and more particularly its supremo and the present Hon'ble Chief Minister Mr N Chandrababu Naidu," the notice to Eenadu said.
The legal notices slammed the publications for carrying "untruthful material with intent and prior knowledge that it would cause harm to my client's reputation seeking to allude to bribes purported to have been paid for securing such agreements and the alleged role of state government securing such contract".
The notices come in response to reports saying state officials allegedly took bribes for solar power purchases when Mr Reddy was Chief Minister.
Rebutting the reports, the notice shared details of the power purchase agreement, saying it was an agreement among governments and no third party was involved in it.
The YSRCP has already strongly refuted allegations made by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Eenadu that the previous state government allegedly accepted a power supply offer "hastily" and the offer put a huge burden of Rs 1.1 lakh crore.
The YSRCP in a statement said the Eenadu newspaper used disinformation spread by the ruling TDP to allege that an offer made by Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) in September 2021 to supply power at Rs 2.49 per kWh was accepted by the then state government very hastily within a seven-hour period, without allegedly taking adequate time to consider the strengths and shortcomings of the proposal. The report also alleged the proposal was very adverse to the interests of the public, with a burden of Rs 1.1 lakh crore.
The YSRCP has said the allegations were made despite the fact that one, the tariff was lower than all the sources of power to Andhra Pradesh discoms (power distribution companies) till date and two, despite the offer also conveying the central government's special incentive of waiver of inter-state transmission charges.