Actor Akkineni Nagarjuna on Thursday, October 4, filed a defamation suit against Telangana’s Forests and Environment Minister Konda Surekha for her comments on the divorce of his son Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Nagarjuna filed the petition in a city court under section 356 of BNS.
On Wednesday, Minister Surekha kicked up a storm by making wild speculations over the divorce of Naga Chaitanya and Samantha. She blamed Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K T Rama Rao (KTR) for the divorce.
Surekha’s derogatory remarks led to wide condemnation from the Telugu film fraternity. Several leading actors had issued statements against the Minister under #FilmIndustryWillNotTolerate.
In his complaint, Nagarjuna said that the allegations made by Surekha were entirely incorrect, baseless, and false. “The defamatory claims were made without any veracity or truth. The accused deliberately spread these allegations with the sole intention of damaging the complainant's personal, professional and his family reputation, fully aware of their falsity.”
Nagarjuna said that the main purpose of spreading such false, libelous, and defamatory content by the accused was to tarnish his family image and reputation. “This act was carried out without any verification, highlighting the malicious intent of the accused to harm the complainant's stature in society and to cause sensationalism.”
Earlier Nagarjuna had condemned the Minister’s remarks through X, asking her to refrain from dragging celebrities into her political battles.
“I strongly condemn the comments of the Honorable Minister Mrs. Konda Surekha. Don't use the lives of movie stars who stay away from politics to criticise your opponents. Please respect other people's privacy.”
“As a woman in a responsible position, your comments and accusations against our family are completely irrelevant and false. I request you to withdraw your comments immediately,” he added.
Meanwhile, KTR also had issued a legal notice to Surekha, seeking to retract her remarks within 24 hours failing which he would file civil and criminal proceedings, he warned.
Samantha and Naga Chaitanya also had issued statements rubbishing the deplorable comments made by the Minister.