Hyderabad: Telangana Congress MLA and former minister Konda Surekha has announced that she is withdrawing her earlier remarks about the personal life of BRS working president K T Rama Rao (KTR).
Earlier, Surekha had alleged that KTR was responsible for the divorce of Telugu actor Akkineni Naga Chaitanya and actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu. She had also accused him of harassing certain actresses who are in drug-related cases.
In response, KTR filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Konda Surekha over her derogatory remarks.
In a post on social media platform X, Surekha said, "I would like to clarify certain personal remarks I made in the past against BRS working president K T Rama Rao (KTR). I made those remarks in the context of the political circumstances prevailing at that time, while criticising the opposition, and not with any deliberate intention."
"I should not have made some of those baseless remarks back then, and I had absolutely no intention of hurting KTR or his family members or tarnishing their reputation," she said in the post.
"If my remarks have hurt KTR or any of his family members, I sincerely regret them and hereby withdraw those statements," she added.
Surekha's decision to withdraw her remarks comes in the wake of the Rs 100 crore defamation suit filed against her by KTR.
"I've taken a firm stand against baseless allegations and cowardly personal attacks on my character. I have filed a ₹100 crore defamation suit against Minister Konda Surekha garu for her malicious and cheap comments. For far too long, these attacks & attempts to indulge in character assassination through whisper campaigns and social media have gone unchecked, but not anymore," KTR posted on X after filing the suit against Surekha.
Similarly, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna and his family filed a defamation case against Konda Surekha over her remarks.
Later, the Hyderabad civil court observed that Surekha's statements could have an adverse impact on society. Accordingly, it ordered the removal of the remarks from media outlets, social media platforms and websites. The court also directed YouTube, Facebook and Google to remove videos containing the remarks.
Recently, the Congress government removed Konda Surekha from the state Cabinet after her daughter, Konda Sushmitha Patel, publicly criticised Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his family.