Four electronic media scribes booked in extortion case in Bhadrachalam
Bhadrachalam police have filed a case against four Telugu news reporters for allegedly threatening a restaurant owner over Rs 1 lakh. The owner reportedly paid Rs 40,000 under pressure, while the accused launched intimidation and a negative campaign
Kothagudem: Bhadrachalam town police have registered a case against four reporters working for different Telugu news channels for allegedly threatening a restaurant owner in the town.
The accused Tammala Rajesh, Jaswanth, Pokala Srinivas Rao, and Premsai were booked under Sections 308(2) (Extortion), 351(2) (Criminal Intimidation) read with 3(5) (Common Intention) of the BNS Act. According to police, hotelier Mutyala Ramakrishna, who runs a restaurant at Bhadrachalam, lodged a complaint against the accused on January 10. He alleged that the accused on October 17, 2025 threatened him to pay Rs 1 lakh claiming that the restaurant under renovation was an illegal structure.
When he told them that he could not pay the amount, they continued to harass him. Following this, Ramakrishna sent Rs.40,000 through an UPI app to Premsai’s friend Raga Sandeep on January 18.
Later in the same month, Srinivas Rao demanded Rs.10,000 from Ramakrishna, who refused to pay the money. Then Srinivas Rao threatened Ramakrishna saying that a SC/ST case would be booked against him and also launched a negative campaign on his hotel. All these made the hotel owner act against the scribes. The town SI, V Sateesh registered an FIR and launched an investigation into the case.
Meanwhile, Srinivas Rao, in a complaint to the local police on January 8 alleged that the owner of the restaurant ‘Godavari Ruchulu’ encroached the footpath and drainage while renovating the hotel. When the matter was taken to the local gram panchayat officials, the encroachment was cleared. Likewise an incident of food poisoning at the hotel was taken to the notice of food safety officials.
In view of these, Ramakrishna targetted him and other reporters by making baseless allegations, Srinivas Rao alleged while urging the police to take action against the former for damaging his reputation.