Education and IT Minister Nara Lokesh attended the hearing in the 12th Additional District Court of Visakha on Friday morning in the defamation case filed by him against Sakshi newspaper. The minister approached the court over the news item published in Sakshi daily with a headline “25 lakhs for Chinnababu’s snacks”.
Lokesh has filed a defamation suit for Rs 75 crores, alleging that his reputation was intentionally defamed. After attending the cross-examination for the first time on August 29, Visakha court will cross-examine Lokesh again. Cross-examination will be conducted in this case.
Alleging that this fictitious news story was published in the Sakshi news paper, he resorted to a legal battle. As the newspaper did not give any explanation and did not respond to the notices, Nara Lokesh filed a defamation suit. It is stated in the petition that the news item was made with lies to damage his reputation.
Lokesh said that on the published dates that he was in Visakha, his residence was not in Visakha. Lokesh brought to the notice of the court an attempt to tarnish his image by passing on the expenses incurred for the hospitality of the guests on the invitation of the government.
He made it clear that even though he had visited Visakhapatnam several times as a minister, he had not received any protocol facilities at the airport. In fact, VVIPs and VIPs during the travel time arrive at the airport and spend some time in the VIP lounge before the flight takes off. This is common.
During Chandrababu Naidu’s tenure as Chief Minister from 2014 to 2019, Sakshi published a baseless story that Nara Lokesh also came to Visakha Airport and spent lakhs of rupees on tea, coffee and snacks. Nara Lokesh was furious about this. He expressed anger that Sakshi was publishing unethical news items.
Moreover, Lokesh claimed that he was in other places on the dates mentioned in the news report that he had snacks at the Visakha airport, yet the story was published with falsehoods for political gain to defame him with malicious intent. In his defamation petition he mentioned Jagathi Publications Limited, the Sakshi company responsible for this, Murali, the publisher of Sakshi, Visakha Sakshi News reporters Venkata Reddy and Umakanth.