Hyderabad: Senior journalist Kommineni Srinivasa Rao has been despatched to 14 days judicial custody by a Mangalagiri court docket for a derogatory time period used on his TV debate present for girls from the Amaravati capital area.
VVR Krishnam Raju, a journalist and political analyst, who made the offensive touch upon Kommineni’s present, on the Jagan Mohan Reddy family-owned Sakshi TV, is reportedly absconding, and the Andhra Pradesh police want to arrest him.
In the meantime, the Nationwide Fee for Ladies issued a press release saying it has taken “suo motu cognizance of media experiences on alleged derogatory remarks made by journalist Krishnam Raju in opposition to Amaravati girls throughout a TV debate”.
“Referring to Amaravati as a ‘capital of prostitutes’ is an outrageous insult to girls farmers. NCW strongly condemns such unacceptable and inciting statements in public discourse,” the fee stated on X Tuesday.
NCW chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar wrote to Andhra Pradesh DGP Harish Gupta directing him for “a swift and time-bound investigation, and strict motion in opposition to Raju underneath related legal guidelines”. She has requested for an action-taken report inside three days.
On the TV debate on Friday night, Raju used the expression “vaeshyala raajadhani” whereas objecting to CM Chandrababu Naidu and TDP’s use of “devathala raajadhani” (capital of goddesses), in reference to Amaravati, the AP capital.
When host Kommineni made a quick objection over such expressions in a TV debate, Raju defended his remarks, citing experiences that stated Andhra Pradesh has among the many highest focus of feminine intercourse staff within the nation.
Whereas a number of complaints had been lodged in opposition to Raju and Kommineni at varied locations in AP, the state police arrested Kommineni from his residence at Journalists’ Colony in Hyderabad on Monday morning, performing on a FIR primarily based on a criticism by Kambhampati Sireesha, a TDP chief and an workplace bearer of the state Madiga Company.
Accused no 1 and a pair of, Raju and Kommineni, are booked underneath varied sections of the BNS and the SC ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. A police group from Thulluru led by a DySP rank officer took the 68-year-old senior journalist into custody, shifted him to AP and produced him earlier than a Justice of the Peace a day later.
Since Monday, Sakshi places of work at locations like Vijayawada had been attacked and vandalised by TDP supporters, primarily girls.
The TDP cadres’ sturdy reactions adopted that of the celebration leaders together with supremo Chandrababu Naidu, who additionally vowed motion on Raju and Kommineni.
On Saturday, minister Nara Lokesh posted on X a video clip of the talk on Sakshi TV, the place Raju made the offensive remarks. Lokesh tagged Jagan and #YCPinsultsWomen.
#YCPinsultsWomen
మహిళల్ని అవమానించిన వారు కాలగర్భంలో కలిసిపోవడం ఖాయం@ysjagan గారు! మహిళలను ఇంత ఘోరంగా మీ మీడియా సాక్షిలో అవమానించవచ్చా? అమ్మల ఆత్మాభిమానం మీద, అమరావతి మీద విద్వేషంతో చేస్తున్న అసత్య ప్రచారం మీ దిగజారుడుతనానికి పరాకాష్ట! ఆకాశంపై ఉమ్మేయాలనుకుంటే, అది మీ మీదే… pic.twitter.com/d4Pvmqy2AE— Lokesh Nara (@naralokesh) June 7, 2025
“@ysjagan garu, how will you insult girls so appallingly in your media home? The false propaganda with hatred in opposition to the conceit of moms and in opposition to Amaravati is the peak of your depravity! Amaravati is actually the capital of the divinities! Amaravati is the land of moms who sacrificed their lands…” stated Lokesh.
‘Jagan ought to take accountability’
On Sunday, Naidu issued a powerful assertion condemning the “disgraceful remarks” made by Krishnam Raju “on Sakshi TV, a channel owned by former chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, focusing on girls within the Amaravati area and calling the capital metropolis, a “capital of prostitutes”.
“Ours is a tradition that honours daughters. We belong to a society that reveres the female divine. That is our custom—the essence of Indian life. Notably amongst Telugu folks, daughters and moms are held in deep affection and excessive esteem. In such a state of ours, making disgraceful and vulgar remarks about our moms and sisters underneath the guise of political vendetta or media evaluation is an unforgivable offence,” stated the CM on X on Sunday, sharing the video clip from the present.
Assuring that “those that crossed all boundaries will face the strictest attainable penalties,” Naidu stated, “there may be no tolerance for the appalling feedback that demean the ladies of the capital area by likening them to prostitutes—an outright insult to their dignity. I strongly condemn this perverse pattern being perpetuated underneath the duvet of politics and media.”
The CM went on to criticise his predecessor Jagan “for not taking accountability”.
“It’s much more distressing {that a} former chief minister, on whose personal media channel these offensive statements had been broadcast, has but to denounce the act or apologise to girls—a silence that’s deeply troubling.”
Taking to X on Monday, after the Kommineni arrest, Jagan remarked, “…democratic voices, intellectuals, and journalists are being silenced by concern, intimidation, and blatant misuse of energy underneath Naidu’s anarchic regime”.
Jagan referred to as the arrest “an act of political vendetta”. He questioned the rationale of arresting a moderator for remarks he by no means made, merely for internet hosting a debate.
“In any dialogue, various opinions are pure. Punishing an anchor for company’ statements is just not solely unjust, it’s harmful,” stated the YSRCP chief.
Jagan additionally referred to some previous controversial remarks by Chandrababu Naidu himself and his brother-in-law Nandamuri Balakrishna. “You as soon as requested if a mother-in-law will ever object when a daughter-in-law says she is going to ship a boy youngster. Your brother-in-law even stated that while you see a woman, you need to both kiss or make her pregnant.”
Jagan additionally accused Chandrababu of failing to supply security and justice to girls and women since returning to energy.
.@ncbn గారూ.. అనని మాటలను సీనియర్ జర్నలిస్టు కొమ్మినేని శ్రీనివాసరావుగారికి ఆపాదిస్తూ, వాటిని వక్రీకరించి విషప్రచారం చేసి, ఆయన్ను అరెస్టు చేయడమే కాకుండా సాక్షి యూనిట్ ఆఫీసులమీద ఒక పథకం ప్రకారం దాడులు చేయించారు. ఈ అరాచకానికి మహిళల గౌరవం అనే ముసుగు తొడిగి ఎక్కడికక్కడ విధ్వంసం…
— YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (@ysjagan) June 9, 2025
“In only one yr of TDP rule, 188 girls and women had been raped, and 15 of them had been murdered after the assault. Lots of of circumstances of harassment and violence have gone unpunished. That is your monitor file” Jagan stated, calling it an entire breakdown of legislation and order in AP.
On Tuesday, YSRCP girls’s wing leaders like MLC Varadu Kalyani led protests in a number of locations like Vijayawada, demanding the TDP-led NDA regime act to curb the alarming rise in rapes, atrocities on girls, and the woman youngster within the state, “as an alternative of focusing on journalists like Kommineni”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Additionally learn: Why CM Naidu desires Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act amended to insert the phrase Amaravati
