Vijayawada: Anti Corruption Bureau registered a case against former AP I&PR commissioner and Ex-officio secretary Tamma Vijay Kumar Reddy on charges of doing undue favor to Saakshi daily newspaper and television channel. The ACB in its preliminary enquiry identified that Rs. 371.2 crores worth advertisements were given to Saakshi during 2019-24 which occupies 43% of total advertising budget released for the print media by the government.
While Rs.26.71 crores worth ads were given to Television channels Rs.16 crores were given to Saakshi media which is owned by former CM YS Jagan’s family.
ACB in its FIR stated that a huge number of employees from Saakshi group were employed in I&PR and digital wings of the department. The ACB also identified that Reddy intentionally denied ads to a few media agencies by giving oral instructions to his staff. The ACB also framed charges for increasing the advertisement tariff in 2019 to benefit Sakshi media.
