Republic TV has filed a criminal defamation complaint against Times Now Managing Editor Navika Kumar for the show she hosted on January 18 regarding the alleged WhatsApp chats between Arnab Goswami and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta. The 51-page notice alleges that Navika misused, misconstrued and distorted “The documents from the Mumbai Police's charge sheet in the TRP Scam, mainly the WhatsApp Chats, and without regard to the matter being sub judice”.
While accusing Navika Kumar of being "jealous" and saying that she “lacks ability to "match the success of Republic TV and that is the reason for the "defamatory show",” the complainant takes objection to eh fact that Navika has run the show “Even before trial has started against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami on the basis of "malicious Mumbai police charge sheet"”.The WhatsApp leaks are part of the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai police in their investigation of the fake TRP case in which Arnab Goswami has been named as an accused.
The notice claims that Arnab Goswami has “Earned name, fame and reputation in public at large. The Complainant Company has an unblemished record and holds great goodwill and reputation in the eyes of the general public,” and accused Navika of going on a “reckless spree to spew grossly defamatory material”. It adds that the accused has caused “Serious harm to the reputation of the Complainant by imputing behavior incompatible with proper conduct and suggestions of involvement in improper activity”.
The petition has asked for the court to initiate action against Navika under section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with defamation.
On January 18th, Navika hosted a show in which she said, “The seat I'm sitting on, the shoes I tried to fill in 2016, when Arnab Goswami (then Editor-in chief of Times Now) left to start his own channel. I was among the first people he hired in 2005. It was Arnab who called me for four months who asked me to join Times Now, which was yet to begin, but wanted to bring in journalism with a difference. All I know about television is what I learnt from him, because he is a great professional and he knew the craft of television."
She then lashed out at him and said,”Would any right thinking journalist break into a tranceful TRP joy over the mortal remains of our brave jawans, would any journalist be revelling at the prospect of rating when the nation is mourning the martyrdom of 40 jawans. brutally butchered by Pakistan. I still can never forget that visual, of the coffins lying there. I don't think that there is a single Indian who would not have a tear in his or her eye. Because that scene would move anybody whichever profession, whichever religion, whichever state of the country, whichever region of the country, whichever gender, wherever you come from because when you saw those coffins, you would think about a country called Pakistan doing this to us and the families of our braves. Somebody might be having children who are so small they wouldn't even remember their father's voice but this is not what Mr Goswami was thinking in his chats when he was chatting with Partho Dasgupta, the ex-BARC CEO. It is extremely unfortunate that this man, my former colleague, today the owner of a very so-called successful channel who built the success of this channel manipulating TRPS as alleged in the chargesheet presented by the Mumbai police. Who literally jumped out of India's television screens every night | claiming to be India's only nationalist anchor