Hyderabad, April 12: Handlooms and textiles minister P Shankar Rao on Monday threatened to file defamation and criminal cases against newspapers for reporting his statement at Bobbili last week that it was at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s behest that he move a case against Jagan Mohan Reddy in the AP High Court.
Spewing venom at the media, particularly The New Indian Express, he vehemently denied saying that he had been instigated by Sonia Gandhi.
He said he was not a leader of such stature that Sonia Gandhi would require such services from him.
“I am denying this with a lot of pain in my heart. I am a man with values and discipline. I filed the case against Jagan Mohan Reddy after Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi gave a call for eradication of corruption at an AICC session. Taking this as inspiration, I filed a case against Jagan Mohan Reddy,’’ he said.
A fuming Shankar Rao accused newspapers and TV channels of practising yellow journalism.
“Filing a defamation case against newspapers is not enough. I will file criminal cases against them,” he said.
As regards video footage that showed him slapping his personal assistant, the minister said it was “engineered” to defame him.
The textiles minister claimed that after “the distorted” version of his statement was broadcast and published, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) conducted an inquiry into it. “I have come to know that IB too could not authenticate the reports,” he said.
He said he would go for Delhi on Wednesday to explain his side of the story to Sonia Gandhi.He said he had a great respect for Sonia Gandhi and that he would continue to remain a watchdog for the Gandhi-Nehru family.
“In fact it was I who reacted first when TRS leader K T Rama Rao had said that all the Gandhis living now were spurious. Similarly when Jagan Mohan Reddy described the Congress as Italian Congress, I was the first to slam him. I have been fighting against corruption all through. Even before filing the case against Jagan Mohan Reddy, I fought against irregularities in land allotment to EMAAR and Raheja Mindspace. For doing this, I even received threatening calls,” Shankar Rao said.
–Agencies