Hyderabad, May 24 (IANS) Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, on Sunday filed a defamation suit against social media platforms, media houses, journalists and several social media accounts for their alleged malicious campaign against him over a POCSO case in which his son Bandi Bhageerath was arrested recently.

Bandi Sanjay, who filed the suit before the vacation bench of the City Civil Court, has claimed Rs 1 crore in damages.

The MoS said that that he is seeking protection of his Constitutional right to reputation and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India against what he calls a “sustained and malicious campaign of false, defamatory and misleading publications circulated by the defendants across various media and digital platforms”.

He alleged that the defendants, including various media houses, digital platforms, social media accounts, YouTube channels and online publications, embarked upon a coordinated and malicious campaign to falsely implicate and politically target him and his family members.

He added that through publication of sensationalised articles, misleading thumbnails, fabricated social media posts, defamatory captions, videos, tweets and speculative commentary, the defendants allegedly sought to create a false public perception that the he was personally connected with, influencing or shielding the alleged acts involving his son.

The petition has named 23 defendants including Google, Meta, X and some Telugu news channels.

He cited 50 ‘X’ links, 99 Instagram postings and dozens of YouTube links.

He gave details of the social media accounts used for the postings, including political parties — Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Congress, their leaders, journalists, digital platforms etc.

The petitioner said that the publications continue to remain accessible online and constitute a continuing wrong causing irreparable reputational injury to him.

It was also added that owing to the petitioner’s Constitutional office and public stature, the defamatory campaign has resulted in grave professional embarrassment, mental agony, humiliation and political harm.

The MoS had earlier approached the City Civil Court, seeking direction to defendants to remove the defamatory content.

–IANS

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