Hyderabad, Oct 6 (SocialNews.XYZ) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao has sent a legal notice to a leading vernacular daily for allegedly publishing false news that the ACB court ordered the temporary seizure of his passport in the Formula E race case.
Rama Rao posted on X that his lawyer has sent a legal notice to the Telugu daily.
He said it was regrettable that a prominent newspaper with 50 years of history published false news without verifying the facts.
“I demand that the said false news be immediately withdrawn from all media and an unconditional apology be issued,” he said.
Rama Rao’s office issued a statement about the legal notice sent to the newspaper. Stating that the court did not give any orders, the legal notice has asked the newspaper to withdraw the news, publish a clarification with the same prominence and issue an unconditional apology within 48 hours.
It said that the news published in the newspaper dated September 29 is contrary to facts and misleads readers.
Advocate N Lalita Reddy, on behalf of Rama Rao, sent the legal notice to the newspaper’s editor, publisher, printer, resident editor and the concerned reporter.
The legal notice mentioned that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigating officer filed a memo in the special court seeking appropriate orders about Rama Rao’s passport. It stated that characterising this memo as a court order was incorrect.
The notice emphasised that the special court had not issued any orders for the temporary seizure of KTR's passport. At the same time, the notice highlighted that the Regional Passport Office had issued a show-cause notice on September 28 under Section 10(3)(e) of the Passports Act, granting a 15-day period to provide an explanation. The lawyer stated that publishing a report claiming the court had already ordered the seizure of the passport could create a false impression of KTR among the public.
The notice demanded the disclosure of the information sources and the basis for the report, as well as a clarification on whether the reporter had actually examined the relevant court records or orders. It also wanted all materials related to the story—such as WhatsApp messages, emails, notes, recordings, documents, drafts, and other electronic records—to be preserved.
The legal notice demanded the immediate withdrawal of the published report, the publication of a correction with equal prominence, and an unconditional apology to KTR. It also requested that the story be rectified across all platforms, including online portals, e-papers, websites, social media, and digital archives.
The notice made it clear that failure to take appropriate action within 48 hours would result in civil and criminal defamation proceedings, as well as a complaint being lodged with the Press Council of India.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz