The Telangana police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against 25 celebrities and influencers for allegedly promoting illegal betting and gambling apps through their social media platforms. Actor Prakash Raj has now addressed the case and said that although he did say yes to the ad nine years ago, later he refused to renew his contract. (Also read: FIR filed against Rana Daggubati, Vijay Deverakonda, Lakshmi Manchu and others for promoting gambling platforms)
What Prakash Raj said
In a video post on his X account, Prakash took note of the case and said, “I ask questions to everybody so I need to answer too. So this is my answer. I have not received any summons or anything from the police station. But whenever I do, I will definitely reply to it. It is my responsibility to reply. In June 2016, Junglee Rummy people had approached me for a gaming app ad and I did do it. But, within a few months, I thought it was not right and I couldn’t do anything because I had signed a year’s contract with them.”
‘My conscious doesn’t accept’
He added, “They wanted to renew it. I said, ‘No. My conscious doesn’t accept. I don’t want to continue. This happened around 9 years back. Since then, I have not done any ads which promote online gambling. In 2021, I think it the company must have sold this app to someone else, who used a couple of snippets of me on social media. We did send them a notice and an email. I said, ‘Look, I am not a part of it. I have said no. I told them they couldn’t illegally use my snippets as the contract has been expired.’ They stopped after that. This is my reply to all that I have taken a conscious decision not to promote betting apps. I say to all youngsters, don’t be victim to such gambling because it ruins lives. Say no to betting apps.”
{{/usCountry}}He added, “They wanted to renew it. I said, ‘No. My conscious doesn’t accept. I don’t want to continue. This happened around 9 years back. Since then, I have not done any ads which promote online gambling. In 2021, I think it the company must have sold this app to someone else, who used a couple of snippets of me on social media. We did send them a notice and an email. I said, ‘Look, I am not a part of it. I have said no. I told them they couldn’t illegally use my snippets as the contract has been expired.’ They stopped after that. This is my reply to all that I have taken a conscious decision not to promote betting apps. I say to all youngsters, don’t be victim to such gambling because it ruins lives. Say no to betting apps.”
{{/usCountry}}He concluded by saying, “I thought it is my responsibility to answer and I am sure you will excuse my one mistake that I did 8 years back. Thank you.”
According to the complaint, these celebrities are allegedly accepting large sums of money to promote various betting platforms, which encourage users to gamble their hard-earned money. Some of the stars named in this list are Rana Daggubati, Vijay Deverakonda, Lakshmi Manchu, Praneetha, Nidhi Agarwal, Ananya Nagella, Siri Hanumanthu, Sreemukhi, and Varshini Sounderajan.
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