In his complaint, filed in January, H Varaprasad, who appeared in a discussion on the entry of women at Sabarimala on January 23 that was moderated by Revathi and hosted by anchor K Raghu, alleged that they referred to his caste during the show.
On Friday, cops from Banjara Hills Police Station went to Revathi’s residence and asked her to accompany them to the police station. After recording her statement, she was taken into custody and produced before a magistrate who sent her to judicial remand.
On January 23, during the discussion with a panel that included a woman activist, Varaprasad stated that the views of the anchors were biased. Co-anchor Raghu retorted, saying, “As a Dalit, you don’t question the oppression of Dalits in the country but you are worried about women’s entry into a temple.”
As the argument continued and Varaprasad again accused the channel of biased views, Raghu asked him to leave the studio. At this juncture, Revathi intervened and accused Varaprasad of coming to the studio to pick up a fight. “We are not talking about Dalits here. Don’t make caste an issue here on purpose. Mojo TV condemns attacks done in the name of caste or Hindutva,” Revathi said.
On Friday, Revathi alerted media persons that police was at her doorstep without notice or any warrant. Her husband, D Chaitanya, a filmmaker said although she had responded to the two notices sent by police to give a statement in the case, police disregarded it and were now taking action under pressure.
However, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Banjara Hills, Srinivas Rao said that Revathi did not respond to the two notices and instead went on a hunger strike. “We have been patient with her. The case was filed in January but she did not respond to the notices we sent to her. We finally took action on Friday,” Rao said.
Revathi also claimed that she was being targeted as part of a bigger operation by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government to target V Ravi Prakash, the former CEO of Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd (ABCL) which managed TV9.
Ravi Prakash was also booked on charges of forgery after Alanda Media owned by businessman and owner of My Home Group, Jupally Rameshwar Rao, acquired over 90 per cent stake in TV9. Revathi further alleged that the cases against her and her mentor Ravi Prakash, who is also the founder of Mojo TV, was a crackdown on media outlets which were critical of the ruling party.
