Delhi Court Summons Congress Leaders In Defamation Case Filed By Rajat Sharma

Congress leaders Ragini Nayak, Pawan Khera, and Jairam Ramesh have been called before a Delhi court in connection with criminal defamation and forgery charges brought by prominent journalist and India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma over the purported social media distribution of a "tampered" video clip.

Judicial Magistrate First Class Devanshi Janmeja held that a prima facie case was made out against the three accused under sections 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery for the purpose of harming reputation), 471 (fraudulent or dishonest use of a forged document or electronic record), 499 (criminal defamation) and 500 of the IPC and directed that they be summoned on July 27, 2026.

"The complainant has prima facie demonstrated that the accused persons have made publications that the complainant hurled an objectionable invective against accused no. 1 (Ragini Nayak), who happens to be a lady spokesperson of the Congress party," the court said in its order dated February 2.

"The natural corollary of which was that the complainant was perceived by his friends, acquaintances and public at large to be a male chauvinist, misogynist and someone irreverent to women. The backlash he faced via comments and posts on social media platforms, where he was called denigrating names, prima facie establishes that his reputation took a fall," said the court.

Sharma said that on June 4, 2024, during a live television debate, Nayak falsely accused him of uttering an insulting phrase against her. To bolster the allegation, Sharma published a "modified and tampered" video with a caption overlay. He further claimed that even though Khera and Ramesh knew the video was fake, they still reposted it.

A Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report obtained during an investigation under Section 202 CrPC (postponement of issue of process) revealed "visible alteration" in the videos uploaded by the accused, the judicial magistrate observed, noting that the existence of titles and captions suggested post-production editing.

"The offence of forgery and creation of false document, and use thereof for purpose of defaming complainant is also established since complainant has established that the raw footage of the incident was never given to the accused persons, therefore the video posted by them on X has been created by recording of the live or otherwise telecasted footage of the show by India TV," said the court.

The court added, "Complainant has also established that accused persons had obtained the telecasted footage of the TV show on June 4, 2024 and superimposed the invective as a caption, stating through an explanatory text, along with that the same was uttered by the complainant against her," the order said.

The Delhi High Court's June 14, 2024, ruling directing the accused to remove the contested social media posts was also noted by the court, which noted that Sharma had not used any derogatory language during the debate.

The magistrate clarified the narrow scope of scrutiny at the summoning stage, stating that the accused would bear the burden of proving any statutory defence at trial and that the court was not required to hold a mini-trial.

"It appears that the accused persons, by their spoken and publications made on X, which were intended to be read, have made defamatory imputations against the complainant, knowing and intending to harm the reputation of the complainant. Needless to say, nothing in this order shall be tantamount to an expression on the final merits of this case, as the same is a matter of trial," the court said.