Actor Prudhvi pleads innocence

After he faced a barrage of allegations over allegedly seeking sexual favours from women employees, actor Prudhvi Raj on Sunday resigned from the post of chairmanship of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC).  An audio file in which a male voice (alleged of Prudhvi's) is seen talking indecently to a woman is out.  Prudhvi has claimed that the file is a doctored one.

I never imagined this will happen to me.  I have been hospitalized since morning.  I have always been a dedicated professional.  But now, I stand accused of corruption and boozing in an inappropriate place. The accusations are baseless. Lord Venkateswara is the only Witness, Prudhvi said in a public statement soon after submitting his resignation.

As someone who knows how hard farmers work, I couldn't have called them paid artists.  My words were twisted to besmirch me, he added, referring to another controversy recently.

There are rumours that Prudhvi has been targetted by some people within the ruling YSRCP, as they are jealous of his rise.  He has been in the good books of Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy.