Mumbai Police Deputy Commission Abhishek Trimukhe has filed a criminal defamation complaint against Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, his wife and codirector Samyabrata Goswami, and the ARG Outlier Media group that runs the channel, over comments made during a segment on deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The suit alleges defamatory remarks aired during a panel discussion on Republic Bharat on August 7, 2020. It says these remarks were made with a “singular view of assassinating [Trimukhe’s] official character and thereby maliciously and deliberately causing undue humiliation of the Mumbai Police department and those who serve the public thereunder.”
On August 7, Republic TB claimed to have accessed call records of conversations between Rhea Chakraborty and DCP Trimukhe. The segment, a panel discussion, focused on these call records.
"However, far from being a discussion conscribed by journalistic ethos, the defamatory telecast has accused no.1 (Goswami) breaking into a tirade of defamatory statements against the complainant,” the suit states.
The document also alleges that a Twitter account by the name arnab5222 with around 2 lakh followers was allegedly run by Goswami and also shared the “defamatory” telecast.
In its decision to include Samyabrata and ARG Outlier in the complaint, it states that no decision can be taken without their knowledge.
The case was filed under section 499, 500 and 501, as well as with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
The suit is the latest bit of legal trouble for Goswami. On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court said that former Broadcast Audience Research Council CEO Partho Dasgupta was the “mastermind” of an alleged television ratings points manipulation scam, pertaining to TRPs of Republic TV channels. Partho had told the HC earlier that Goswami as the prime accused in the alleged scam.
In December, a charge-sheet was filed against Goswami in connection with a 2018 suicide case, where an interior designer and his mother died by suicide allegedly because of non-payment of dues by firms of Goswami and two other accused. Goswami was arrested and released after a week after the Supreme Court intervened and granted him interim bail.